Flotilla carrying activists, aid was setting sail for Gaza on Sunday 31 August 2025, despite a little delay due to strong wind
Authors, activists, and Portuguese politician Mortagua are among passengers
Activists call on politicians to pressure Israel to let the boats through
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| Photo: Gulcin Bekar |
Pro-Palestinian activists are setting sail from Spain this week for Gaza in dozens of boats carrying aid have called on governments to pressure Israel to allow their flotilla - the largest to date - through the naval blockade: Hundreds of people from 44 countries departing from several ports to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud flotilla.
Sumud means "perseverance" in Arabic.
The vessels are to set off from the Spanish port city of Barcelona to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”, said the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Dozens more vessels are expected to leave from Tunisia other Mediterranean ports on 4 September.
The flotilla is expected to arrive at the war-ravaged coastal enclave in mid-September.
The ball is in politicians' court to put pressure on Israel to let the flotilla through, said Saif Abukeshek, one of the organisers. "They need to act to defend human rights and to guarantee a safe passage for this flotilla," the Palestinian, who is resident in Spain, told news agencies on Thursday in Barcelona.
“This will be the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined,” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila also told journalists in Barcelona last week.
Activists will also stage simultaneous demonstrations and other protests in 44 countries in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
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The Global Sumud Flotilla launching from Barcelona is initiating the largest maritime challenge to the illegal siege on Gaza since 2007.
This civilian mission wants to be "a powerful testament to the belief that when governments fail, people must act".
A press conference with our steering committee members preceded the official departure.
On board of the flotilla, activists from several countries, as well as European lawmakers and public figures, such as former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau and leftwing Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortágua.
“We understand that this is a legal mission under international law,” Mortágua told journalists in Lisbon last week.
Among the activists on board:
-Saif Abukeshek, Palestinian activist based in Barcelona, who has been organising Palestinian solidarity across Europe for over 20 years;
-Kleoniki Alexopoulou, a Greek economic and social historian specialising in the Global South;
-Yasemin Acar, a dedicated Turkish-German human rights activist and organiser with a focus on social justice, refugee rights, combating anti-Muslim racism;
-Thiago Ávila, a communicator and a socio-environmentalist from Brazil who travels the world informing, educating, and mobilising against exploitation, oppression, and the destruction of nature, especially in the Global South, he was one of the coordinators onboard the Madleen mission that was intercepted and kidnapped by Israel in June 2025;
-Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, a Malaysian humanitarian leader and founder of Cinta Gaza Malaysia (CGM);
-Notable figures including: Susan Sarandon, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, Abby Martin, Greg Stoker, Ahmed Kouta, Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, Rahma Zein, Sümeyra Akdeniz Ordu, Liam Cunningham, Emma Forreau, Nicole Jenes, Tadhg Hickey, Robert Martin, the Swedish climate justice advocate Greta Thunberg, Gustaf Skarsgård, and others.
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Israel has scuppered numerous attempts over the 15 years of the blockade, including a 2010 boarding by its special forces in which at least nine Turkish activists were killed.
In June, 12 activists on board the sailboat Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces 185km west of Gaza. Its passengers, including French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassa, were detained and eventually expelled.
Then in July, 21 activists from 10 countries were intercepted as they tried to approach Gaza in another vessel, the Handala.
Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching the militant group.
The blockade has remained in place through conflicts including the current war, which began when Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed almost 63,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza, while global hunger monitors including the United Nations say it is suffering from famine.
In early March, Israel also sealed off Gaza by land, letting in no supplies for three months, arguing that Hamas was diverting aid.
