ISTANBUL 

The grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela is set to join a convoy heading to the Gaza Strip to break an Israeli siege on the enclave, the Global Sumud Flotilla said Thursday.

In a post on the US social media company X, the flotilla said that Mandla Mandela will join 10 South African citizens aboard the Sumud Flotilla.

The flotilla set sail from Barcelona earlier this week with around 200 activists, politicians, and artists from 44 countries. It is scheduled to depart Tunisia on Sunday on its way to Gaza.

“Many of us that have visited the occupied territories in Palestine have only come back with one conclusion: that the Palestinians are experiencing a far worse form of apartheid than we ever experienced,” Mandela told reporters at Johannesburg Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Tunisia to join the Gaza-bound flotilla.

“We believe that the global community has to continue supporting the Palestinians, just as they stood side-by-side with us.”

Mandela, whose country strongly opposes Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, stressed that when apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, it was the result of intense pressure and sanctions from other nations.

“They isolated apartheid South Africa and finally collapsed it. We believe that the time has come for that to be done for the Palestinians.”

In November 2023, South Africa filed a request with the International Court of Justice to investigate Israeli attacks on Gaza. A month later, it filed a case against Israel at The Hague-based court accusing Tel Aviv of violating the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued international arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.​​​​​​​