ISTANBUL

An aid convoy continues to approach the Gaza Strip in a new attempt to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade on the Palestinian enclave, organizers said Tuesday.

“We are getting closer to Gaza,” the International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza said on the US social media company X.

About 100 people are aboard the 9-boat convoy, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC)’s “Thousand Madleens” mission to the enclave.

FFC, established in 2008, launched dozens of missions aimed at delivering aid and drawing global attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip.

The new convoy came after Israeli naval forces attacked and seized more than 40 boats sailing to Gaza last week to challenge the Israeli blockade and detained more than 450 activists on board.

Israel, as the occupying power, has previously attacked Gaza-bound ships, seized their cargo, and deported activists on board.

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million, for nearly 18 years, and further tightened the siege in March when it closed border crossings and blocked food and medicine deliveries, pushing the enclave into famine.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardment has killed nearly 67,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The UN and rights groups have repeatedly warned that the enclave is being rendered uninhabitable, with starvation and disease rapidly spreading.