ISTANBUL

A new humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza is now 150 nautical miles (277 kilometers) from its destination, organizers said Tuesday evening, as the convoy moves closer to waters where previous missions were attacked by Israeli forces.

“Our flotilla is now within 150 nautical miles of Gaza’s coast, nearing the zone where earlier Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Global Sumud Flotilla missions faced attacks from Israel,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.

About 100 people are aboard the 9-boat convoy, part of the FCC’s “Thousand Madleens” mission to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza.

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 bombardments have killed more than 67,100 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.