The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) launch went ahead as planned in Barcelona on Sunday, but organizers said the vessels will not sail into international waters immediately due to adverse weather conditions.
Thirty-nine boats are expected to sail from Port Moll de La Fusta in Barcelona on Sunday to Sicily, Italy, GSF steering committee member Thiago Ávila said at the flotilla launch press conference.
“We are working to mobilize more boats aiming to bring together a fleet larger than all previous attempts to reach Gaza combined,” Ávila stated.
The flotilla includes 70 boats with over 1,000 activists involved on a humanitarian sea and land mission to Gaza breaking the ongoing Israeli siege and over 1,000 activists involved in organizing the effort.
This launch comes less than 24 hours after Amnesty International urged states to ensure safe passage for the flotilla, emphasising the international act of solidarity, which must not be illegally obstructed.
“There must be no repeat of Israel’s unlawful interceptions and arbitrary detentions that occurred in 2025, including the seizure of the Madleen and other vessels participating in the [GSF], nor the abuse and ill-treatment inflicted on activists during their detention last October,” the organization said Friday.
According to Amnesty International, the mission includes participants from 100 countries, including a dedicated medical contingent healthcare professionals carrying vital supplies to support Gaza’s devastated health system.
Organizers say the flotilla is a scaled-up and more determined attempt than previous missions not only to deliver aid and challenge the blockade on Gaza, but to break what they describe as global silence, mobilize international action, and extend resistance beyond Gaza to the wider region, including Lebanon, against Israeli impunity.
Lebanon has recently come under Israeli bombardment, targeting heavily populated residential areas in what Lebanese civil society groups have called "Black Wednesday." The death toll from the Israeli areal assault has risen above 300.
Despite high-stakes indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran in Pakistan on Saturday, the situation remains volatile due to a fundamental disagreement over the scope of the recent ceasefire.
While Iran asserts the truce is comprehensive, the US and Israel claim it does not cover Lebanese territory. Both Iranian and US delegations have returned from Pakistan Sunday with no resolution.
GSF organizers also announced a land convoy planned in North Africa to reach the Rafah crossing border but did not share itinerary specifics. Egypt previously blocked such attempts while activists have faced a crackdown in Tunisia.
“We have been demonstrating for three years against everything that's been happening in Gaza. The genocide is very difficult for us living in other places to watch so it's important that we raise our voices and actually join forces against it,” GSF committee member Susan Abdullah during the Sunday launch event in Barcelona.
Gaza’s roughly two million residents are facing prolonged food shortages and catastrophic levels of malnutrition, starvation, and disease. UNICEF has warned of an alarming rise in the number of malnourished children in the Strip.
Since the start of the genocide in 2023, Israel has repeatedly restricted and at times blocked humanitarian aid into Gaza. Activists warn that these declining flows are deepening the collapse of the healthcare system.
This crisis persists even as strikes continue in almost daily ceasefire violations. These incidents include attacks along the so-called “yellow line,” an Israeli military deployment line cutting across the Strip that marks shifting and often loosely defined areas of control.
“Everything is happening in front of our eyes, live-streamed,” said Sümeyra Akdeniz Ordu, a GSF steering committee member and social pedagogy specialist. “The Israeli regime is using weapons in Gaza that have caused thousands of Palestinians to evaporate,” she said.
Meanwhile, activist and steering committee memeber Saif Abukushuk said that since organizing began last year, the group has worked to build a grassroots international movement beyond the sea mission, bringing people together around Palestine as a center of resistance and expanding that mobilization across other struggles.
Greenpeace also joined the GSF by deploying the organization’s vessel, the Arctic Sunrise, to provide technical and operational maritime support to the flotilla in the Mediterranean.
