Another effort to break Gaza blockade sets out from Turkey and Libya

Another flotilla of activists set sail from Turkey this week in an effort to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, while a separate convoy of 30 vehicles departed from Libya with the declared goal of reaching the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The convoy and flotilla efforts come as Israel maintains that humanitarian aid is already entering Gaza through approved border crossings.

The Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories said in a statement on Saturday night that “There are no restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

However, the Gaza Samud Flotilla (GSF) organization issued a statement insisting that Gaza remains under siege and said the convoy departing from Zalitan includes around 200 participants and activists, among them doctors, nurses, engineers and construction workers from 25 different countries.

GSF Steering Committee member Ahmed Ghaniya said at a press conference that “We are here due to the urgent need of our brothers and sisters in Gaza for relief and aid, and to shine a spotlight on them. We are on clear paths, and whatever routes are designated for us, we will follow them. Our goal is clear: to reach Gaza and break the siege.”

Another member of the group, Turkish national Ahmet Beker, a veteran of the Mavi Marmara flotilla event in 2010, declared that “We are here to put an end to the injustice being inflicted upon our brothers and sisters in Palestine, for the sake of the thousands of children, women and men who have been massacred and continue to be killed."

Insisting they want to "do [their] best to try to break the illegal siege imposed upon" Gaza, he stressed that they "will keep speaking out" and "will keep fighting for the oppressed everywhere. God willing, we will meet in Jerusalem.”

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, issued a statement on his Instagram account saying that the GSF demanded the release of all “Palestinian prisoners” as well as a “free Palestine from river to sea.” He added that “We say to the Israeli entity that it doesn’t matter to us how many times we are intercepted, arrested and tortured. We will not be silenced.”

The IDF has intercepted several convoys of boats and small ships heading to Gaza in the decade and a half since the original Mavi Marmara incident, arresting and deporting hundreds of activists, most of whom did not violently resist arrest.

Meanwhile, land convoys attempting to approach the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza have repeatedly been turned back by Egyptian authorities.