Gaza-bound aid flotilla sends 9 ships to break Israeli blockade, prepares 6 more

TUNIS, Tunisia / ISTANBUL

A Gaza-bound aid flotilla said Tuesday that it has dispatched nine ships to the besieged territory to break a months-long Israeli siege.

The Maghreb Sumud Flotilla said it is also preparing to send six more vessels later in the day for the Palestinian enclave.

“We have already sent nine ships, the most recent being the Yamen on Monday evening,” Nabil Chenoufi, a member of the organizing committee, told Anadolu.

“Six more – the Mawal, Qaysar, Florida, Tiko, Saada and Tamar – are being readied to depart today.”

The North African initiative is part of a wider international flotilla of nearly 50 vessels carrying activists from Europe, Latin America, the US, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia.

Chenoufi said the flotilla’s aim is to “send as many ships as possible to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and establish a safe corridor for humanitarian assistance.”

Wael Nawar, another committee member, said in a video message from aboard the Der Yassin vessel: “We are now in international waters, approaching Italian waters.”

“Our ships are sailing close together to rendezvous with the Spanish and Italian flotillas. It will take around eight days to reach Gaza.”

By Sunday evening, 16 ships had already departed from Tunisian ports of Gammarth, Sidi Bou Said and Bizerte, according to committee member Khaled Boujemaa.

The first ship of the global convoy set sail from Bizerte on Saturday, following earlier departures from Barcelona in late August and Genoa on Sept. 1. By Sept. 7, the European contingents had reached Tunisian waters ahead of their onward voyage to Gaza.

The initiative began assembling last month, with ships departing from Barcelona, Spain, and Genoa, Italy.

Organizers describe the mission as unprecedented, contrasting it with previous attempts involving single boats that were intercepted by Israel and their passengers deported.

This convoy is the largest of its kind, aiming to challenge the blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where famine conditions have taken hold under Israel’s months-long closure of all crossings.

The Israeli army has killed almost 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable, and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.