A Gaza-bound boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid supplies left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a different vessel that had made a high-profile attempt to break the maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip.
The Handala left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12 p.m., an AFP journalist saw, carrying about 15 activists. It is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which also dispatched the earlier boat, the Madleen, on a mission to challenge Israel’s blockade on the Strip.
Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat’s departure with cries of “Free Palestine.”
The former Norwegian trawler — which activists say is carrying medical supplies, food, children’s equipment and medicine for Gaza — will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles), in the hope of reaching Gaza’s coast.
The boat will make a stop at Gallipoli, in southeastern Italy, where two members of France’s hard-left La France Insoumise party are expected to join.
“This is a mission for the children in Gaza, to break the humanitarian blockade and to break the summer silence on the genocide,” said Gabrielle Cathala, one of the two La France Insoumise members set to board the boat on July 18.
“I hope we will reach Gaza but if not, it will be yet another violation of international law” by Israel, she claimed.
The initiative comes six weeks after the departure of the Madleen, another ship that left Italy for Gaza transporting aid and activists, including prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan.
The Madleen was intercepted by Israeli authorities on June 9, about 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) west of Gaza’s coast, after it defied repeated warnings by Israel to turn around.
Israel towed the boat to the Ashdod Port and detained the 12 activists on board before deporting them over the following days. Jerusalem, which described the venture as a publicity stunt, said the small amount of aid on the boat was transferred to Gaza using approved overland channels.
Several other attempts have been made over the years to approach Gaza by sea, not all of which fared as well as the Madleen.
In May, a vessel dispatched by the Freedom Flotilla was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship. Israel did not comment on the incident.
Past attempts to break the blockade have also failed, most notably the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010, which saw Israeli commandos board a Turkish-led flotilla bound for Gaza. The violence that ensued when those aboard the ship attacked the soldiers resulted in the deaths of 10 activists and left a soldier badly wounded, sparking international condemnation and a severe diplomatic rift between Israel and Turkey.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007 in a violent coup. Israel says it was necessary to keep Hamas from smuggling in arms it would use to attack the Jewish state. Critics of the blockade say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Hamas-led terrorists killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages. Hamas is still holding 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 57,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 451. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.