Gaza-bound flotilla 545 kilometers from enclave: Organizers

By Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) - The International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza announced Sunday that a flotilla bound for the enclave comprised of 11 vessels carrying international activists is approximately 545 kilometers (339 miles) from reaching its shores.

Its mission is to break Israel’s illegal blockade, end the genocide against Palestinians and establish a protected maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian aid directly to Gaza, it said.

Earlier, the activists on board the aid convoy appealed for international protection as their mission is nearing the enclave.

On Saturday, the committee announced that two additional boats had joined the latest wave of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s mission to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, raising the total number of vessels en route to 11, after Israel attacked the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters last week.

Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the flotilla late Wednesday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries. The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a grassroots international solidarity movement that organizes civilian-led aid missions by sea, has organized multiple attempts since 2010 to break the Israeli blockade and highlight the enclave’s humanitarian crisis.

Israel has maintained the blockade of Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable, with the blockade also pushing Gaza to famine.