Yesterday, five Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) sailboats joined up with 54 Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) boats departing from Marmaris, Türkiye, to set sail to Gaza in a new phase of the flotilla mission.
This new phase continues the mission to break the siege of Gaza notwithstanding the Israeli government’s April 29 attack on 22 GSF civilian vessels off the western coast of Crete and its abduction and abuse of two (GSF) organizers, Thiago Avila and Saif Abu Keshek for 12 days. They were released without charge on May 10.
Despite the April 29 attack, FFC launched its boats from Siracusa Italy on May 2. They arrived at a port on a Greek island near the Turkish port where 54 more GSF boats had assembled. Flotilla organizers from the two groups temporarily paused when they reached these ports on each side of the Greek-Turkish border to assess security conditions and coordinate next steps.
The flotilla mission is now restarted and underway. “We sail one day before the anniversary of the Nakba, not only to commemorate the anniversary, but to act on it,” said Abu Keshek at a GSF news conference on May 13.
Italy Mobilizing
Meanwhile, an Italian member of the FFC land crew reports that “organizers in Rome are planning a big march against 78 years of genocide on Saturday, May 16, leading to a general strike in Italy on May 18.” She further reports that on Italian TV journalists routinely talk about the flotillas as “the conscience of the world” that make the genocide and the complicity of governments visible.
Governments Agreed to Prevent Genocide and Punish Perpetrators
The FFC and GSF boats are sailing in defiance of a brutal and unlawful blockade of Gaza designed to isolate, imprison, persecute, kill, and maim the 2 million Palestinians who live there. The boats sail to break that genocidal blockade. They include hundreds of ordinary people from dozens of countries, sailing because of the failure of governments to take action to stop the genocide. Action the governments had agreed to take when they signed and ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Under that Convention, 153 governments agreed to “prevent and suppress” the crime of genocide and to punish the persons responsible “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.” Among those 153 countries are the law-breakers in chief: the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Australia, and Israel itself.*[i]
Flotilla Initiatives
Since 2010, the FFC has organized and sailed dozens of vessels in direct challenge to Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza, building on the historic missions of the Free Gaza Movement, which first broke the blockade by sea, landing in Gaza with 5 boats in 2008.
Following the FFC’s June 2025 voyage of the Madleen, international participation in flotilla initiatives exploded, with the formation of two new coalitions, the GSF and Thousand Madleens to Gaza (TMTG), reflecting increasing global awareness of the need to act because of our governments’ failure to act while siege and genocide were raging.
Israel, and all countries cooperating with its criminal acts, are on clear notice that there is no lawful pretext to attack the flotilla: this campaign is civilian, unarmed, sailing in accordance with international law, and sailing in defense of fundamental human rights. Any act to interfere with these vessels would be illegal under multiple articles of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In recent weeks, Israel and the United States have attempted to smear and criminalize the GSF through baseless allegations clearly aimed at delegitimizing the growing civilian resistance. And to manufacture public consent for further attacks on the flotilla mission.
The release of organizers Saif and Thiago on May 10 without charge only further exposed the emptiness of the Israeli and US claims. As GSF noted in a press statement, “Their return is a testament to international mobilization, yet their release does not constitute true freedom while over 9,500 Palestinian [prisoners in Israeli jails] remain trapped in a system of torture and impunity.”
For Palestinians in Gaza who have endured two decades of a deadly blockade, repeated military assaults, forced deprivation, sexual violence and ongoing genocide, this flotilla represents far more than the humanitarian aid the boats carry. It is an act of international civilian resistance against settler colonial violence and the global machinery that sustains it.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the Global Sumud Flotilla remain committed to direct, nonviolent action–at sea and on land–to halt Israel’s illegal closure of Gaza and to stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom, dignity, return, and self-determination.
*[i] Blatant violation of decency and law has become routine for public officials in the US who follow the Israeli model. And it’s not just ICE. For example, under the authority of the governor of Vermont, the state air national guard daily illegally assaults nearly 7000 of Vermont’s own citizens, including 1,300 children, by training with the 115-decibel F-35 jets from a runway in the City of S. Burlington. Such a city location for the ear-and-brain destroying F-35 training causes mass suffering. But it’s excellent training for pilots if their job is to commit crimes against civilians when called up for war. That child-harming training explains why the F-35 airmen of the Vermont Air National Guard were the ones selected by Secretary of War Peter Hegseth to participate in the US-Israeli war against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Iran.
