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Freedom Flotilla Launches New Gaza Mission, Targets October Arrival
(MENAFN) The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has unveiled a fresh international maritime campaign toward Gaza, with ships stopping at European ports en route to an attempted breach of the blockade in October.
"We are sailing again because Israel hasn't stopped its genocide and because Palestine is still not free," the coalition said in a statement calling for global backing.
The mission aims to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza while rallying public pressure across Europe, the coalition said Wednesday.
The voyage is already in motion: the coalition's Handala II vessel docked in Norway, Sweden and Denmark over June and July. A second ship, the Kate, set sail from Bristol, England, in August, later stopping in Ireland, Germany and France.
Remaining stops in Spain, Portugal and Italy are planned before the flotilla pushes on toward Gaza, with arrival targeted for October.
The mission draws together human rights advocates, union organizers, elected officials, journalists and medical workers, the coalition said, adding that it will lean on local communities to press governments into halting arms and energy transfers to Israel, cutting diplomatic and military ties, and imposing sanctions.
"The Freedom Flotilla sails again because our governments continue to fail to uphold their obligations," said Zohar Chamberlain Regev, a coalition steering committee member.
"At every port, we will carry the demand that Palestinians be free to live with dignity," she said, adding: "In October, we intend to carry that demand and the solidarity of people around the world to Gaza's shores."
The coalition is pressing governments to guarantee the flotilla safe, unobstructed passage and to warn that any interception, seizure or detention of participants will carry consequences. It also demanded immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza and an end to Israeli restrictions on food, water and medicine entering the territory.
"We know that sailing toward Gaza carries serious risks," said Edward Digilio, a Maryland-based engineer joining the mission. "But silence and inaction carry a much greater cost for Palestinians and the world," he said, calling the effort "an expression of shared humanity and a refusal to accept the destruction of an entire people as normal."
The coalition said Israeli forces attacked and detained hundreds of participants during a prior flotilla mission in spring 2026, with volunteers reporting severe beatings, broken bones, gunshot wounds, repeated tasering and sexual assault in custody. It also cited Israel's May 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara, in which 10 activists died.
"We are sailing again because Israel hasn't stopped its genocide and because Palestine is still not free," the coalition said in a statement calling for global backing.
The mission aims to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza while rallying public pressure across Europe, the coalition said Wednesday.
The voyage is already in motion: the coalition's Handala II vessel docked in Norway, Sweden and Denmark over June and July. A second ship, the Kate, set sail from Bristol, England, in August, later stopping in Ireland, Germany and France.
Remaining stops in Spain, Portugal and Italy are planned before the flotilla pushes on toward Gaza, with arrival targeted for October.
The mission draws together human rights advocates, union organizers, elected officials, journalists and medical workers, the coalition said, adding that it will lean on local communities to press governments into halting arms and energy transfers to Israel, cutting diplomatic and military ties, and imposing sanctions.
"The Freedom Flotilla sails again because our governments continue to fail to uphold their obligations," said Zohar Chamberlain Regev, a coalition steering committee member.
"At every port, we will carry the demand that Palestinians be free to live with dignity," she said, adding: "In October, we intend to carry that demand and the solidarity of people around the world to Gaza's shores."
The coalition is pressing governments to guarantee the flotilla safe, unobstructed passage and to warn that any interception, seizure or detention of participants will carry consequences. It also demanded immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza and an end to Israeli restrictions on food, water and medicine entering the territory.
"We know that sailing toward Gaza carries serious risks," said Edward Digilio, a Maryland-based engineer joining the mission. "But silence and inaction carry a much greater cost for Palestinians and the world," he said, calling the effort "an expression of shared humanity and a refusal to accept the destruction of an entire people as normal."
The coalition said Israeli forces attacked and detained hundreds of participants during a prior flotilla mission in spring 2026, with volunteers reporting severe beatings, broken bones, gunshot wounds, repeated tasering and sexual assault in custody. It also cited Israel's May 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara, in which 10 activists died.
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