World Ships Sail to Break Gaza Siege

Sixteen ships set sail from Tunisian ports as part of the Global Sumud Fleet for Gaza, a large-scale international flotilla of civilian boats aiming to break Israel’s blockade on the territory and deliver humanitarian aid.

Khaled Boujemaa, a member of the Maghreb contingent of the Global Sumud Flotilla, told Anadolu that 11 of the ships departed from Bizerte Port in northern Tunisia from Saturday evening until late Sunday.

Three ships set sail from Gammarth Port in the capital, as two others left Sidi Bou Said Port near Tunis, Boujemaa said.

On Sunday, spokesperson Ghassan al-Hanshiri also told Anadolu that two ships left from Gammarth Port toward Gaza and “a third Tunisian ship was preparing to depart shortly,” noting that “a total of eight Tunisian ships are currently docked at Gammarth.”

He pointed out that other ships remain in Sidi Bou Said Port, while vessels from Italy and Spain have already departed, and all will meet in the Mediterranean on their way to Gaza.

On Saturday, the very first vessel of the Global Sumud Flotilla departed Tunisia’s Bizerte Port, in addition to 18 boats from Sicily’s Augusta Port, toward Gaza.

According to an Anadolu correspondent and flotilla spokesperson, the flotilla includes dozens of ships and hundreds of participants from 47 Arab and Western countries, among them prominent politicians, artists, and parliamentarians.

The initiative began last month, with ships departing from Barcelona, Spain, and Genoa, Italy. Over the past week, European boats arrived in Tunisian waters to join their Maghreb counterparts before continuing toward Gaza. Organizers described the mission as unprecedented, contrasting it with previous attempts involving single boats that were intercepted by Israel and their passengers deported.

This convoy is the largest of its kind, aiming to challenge the blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where famine conditions have taken hold under Israel’s months-long closure of all crossings.

The Israeli army has killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.