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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - JOHANNESBURG — Organizers of an international flotilla of boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday announced plans for another mission with more than 100 boats and 1,000 activists, including medics and war crimes investigators.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, who organized a similar aid flotilla that Israel seized at sea last year, described the upcoming mission as the biggest civilian-led mobilization against Israel’s actions in Gaza. They plan to set sail from Barcelona on March 29 with broader international participation.
Meeting at the foundation of late South African leader Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, the campaigners called on the international community to prevent Israeli forces from intercepting the operation.
“It is a cause … for those that want to rise and stand for justice and dignity for all,” said Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, who was among activists arrested by Israel during last year’s voyage.
“The departure will be at the initial historic departure from Barcelona, followed by Tunisia, Italy, and other Mediterranean ports, and we will sail this time at the date of March, the 29th,” Global Sumud activist Sumeyra Akdeniz Ordu told a livestreamed news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“We will sail with, this time, thousands of participants, including more than a thousand doctors, nurses, health professionals … We will have medical professionals with us. We will have eco-builders with us. We will have war crimes investigators with us, which is the difference between the previous mission,” she added.
Referring to the US president’s efforts to solve the conflict in the Middle East, the activist stressed that this initiative is “an alternative to the Trump plan,” since it includes the Palestinians and lets them decide for themselves “how they want to rebuild their own homeland.”
Another activist announced that, in parallel to the sea mission, “a new big movement regarding the land, the new Sumud land convoy” will be carried out.
He explained that this new humanitarian convoy will include medical aid, food, and all other aid materials that Gazans need.
Professionals such as doctors and engineers will join this land mission that will depart from North Africa, going all through Egypt until it reaches the Rafah border crossing.
A second land convoy will depart South Asia, and details will be announced soon, he added.
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The activist explained that despite being supposedly open, the Rafah crossing is the scene of an unbelievable “suffering” due to the manipulations of the Israeli regime, which makes it very hard for the people to enter and exit.
“So these human-powered corridors are our responsibility, and we should really take our responsibility as people from all around the world,” he emphasized.
In mid-January, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his government would be directly involved in the next Sumud mission to the Gaza Strip.
More than 20 Malaysians were among activists from 45 countries who joined the first Samud mission to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza. They were detained after their vessels were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
Last October, Israel’s military intercepted some 40 boats from the Global Sumud Flotilla as they carried aid to blockaded Gaza, arresting more than 450 participants, including Mandela, Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan. Several detainees alleged physical and psychological abuse while in Israeli custody.
Israeli officials had denounced that flotilla and earlier smaller-scale efforts to sail aid into Gaza as publicity stunts. Flotilla organisers said they were acting to break Israel’s “illegal” siege of the enclave and accused Israel’s seizure of their vessels of violating international maritime law.
Israel has heavily restricted supplies of aid since it launched a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, causing famine-like conditions in the enclave, according to activists and humanitarians. Some aid has reached the enclave since a “ceasefire” started in October, but the UN says it falls far short of what is needed to meet urgent needs.
While the flotilla activists anticipate Israel will again try to stop their passage, they say international law is on their side, and their journey will bring attention to the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.
“We may not have reached Gaza physically [but] we have reached … the people in Gaza,” said one of the activists, Susan Abdallah. “They know that we care, that we will not stop at anything until we actually break the siege.” — Agencies
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