The Global Sumud Flotilla announced on Thursday that it will dispatch a new mission, by land and sea, to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which organizers described as “the largest coordinated civilian mobilization to Gaza,” set to launch at the end of March.
Organizers said the mission will begin at sea from Barcelona on March 29, before expanding through multiple Mediterranean ports in a phased operation that combines a maritime fleet with a coordinated land convoy.
During a news conference at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, organizers said the joint steps aim to form a humanitarian corridor to facilitate access to Gaza and to maintain international solidarity with Palestinians.
Sumeyra Akdeniz-Ordu, a member of the coordinating committee, said the mission will include thousands of participants and hundreds of vessels, supported by specialized teams that include more than 1,000 workers in medical and educational fields, unarmed civilian protection groups, and reconstruction teams.
She said the goal is for Palestinians to participate in “the early stages of reconstruction,” while demanding security, justice, and dignity.
Organizers said the land convoy will move in parallel with the maritime fleet, aiming to challenge restrictions imposed at border crossings, especially the Rafah crossing, and to highlight the urgent need for humanitarian corridors led by civilian forces.
Steering committee member Saif Abukeshek said contacts inside Gaza indicate “no tangible improvement” in living conditions despite talk of a ceasefire, pointing to continued bombardment, strict restrictions on movement and medical evacuation, and a sharp rise in the number of children who have lost their parents.
Last month, the Global Sumud Fleet announced that it submitted an official request to the Egyptian government seeking permission for a land humanitarian convoy to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
In June, Egyptian security forces blocked hundreds of foreign solidarity activists at the first and second checkpoints on the Cairo-Ismailia road, barring them from reaching the Rafah crossing. After confiscating their passports, the activists staged a sit-in, only to face forcible deportation back to their home countries in the following days.
That coincided with a decision by the Interior Ministry in eastern Libya to prevent the North African Sumud Convoy, aimed at breaking the Israeli blockade on Gaza, from reaching the Egyptian border, and to detain a number of activists taking part in it, despite their crossing from Tunisia without harassment.
In October 2025, Israeli occupation forces raided Global Sumud Flotilla vessels in international waters during a maritime mission to break the blockade on Gaza, and towed the command vessels to the port of Ashdod. According to the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza, Israeli occupation forces detained 490 activists who took part in the flotilla at the time.
While Israel considers solidarity flotillas “attempts to breach an active combat zone,” organizers insist they are peaceful, symbolic actions intended to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where more than 2 million people have lived under a tightened blockade since 2007.
The interception of the Sumud Fleet was not the first Israeli attack on a humanitarian convoy seeking to break the blockade on Gaza.
On May 2, 2025, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel loaded with humanitarian aid and activists bound for Gaza, was disabled by Israeli drone strikes off Malta's coast. The assault sparked a fire, punched a hole in the hull, and crippled the ship, derailing the flotilla's defiance of the blockade.
Israel also intercepted the ship Madleen in June, arrested the activists on board, and deported them, and the ship Handala later faced the same fate.
