The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has launched a new international maritime mission to break Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, undertaking port-to-port voyages across Europe to mobilize grassroots support and international pressure before sailing directly to the enclave in October, according to a statement reviewed by Al Manassa.
In a statement released Tuesday, the coalition said the new campaign proceeds despite “acts of violence and torture” inflicted on hundreds of flotilla volunteers last spring—including severe beatings, electric shocks, and sexual assaults.
The coalition emphasized that such abuses will not deter its mobilization, just as the 2010 killing of 10 Freedom Flotilla activists aboard the Mavi Marmara failed to halt the movement.
The coalition said the mission comes at a time when much of the international community treats Gaza as though a “ceasefire” brought an end to the genocide, even as the Israeli occupation continues to kill Palestinians across Gaza, weaponize the siege to dictate and curb the entry of food, medicine, and fuel, and deny Palestinians their fundamental right to freedom.
The voyage gathers human rights advocates, trade unionists, elected officials, journalists, doctors, and Palestine solidarity campaigners. According to the statement, the vessel Handala 2 navigated Scandinavian waters in June and July, docking in Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish ports. In August, the vessel Kate departed from Bristol, England, calling at ports in Ireland, Germany, and France, with scheduled stops in Spain, Portugal, and Italy before setting sail for Gaza.
At every port of call, the coalition said it will organize alongside local communities to pressure host governments to end what it termed complicity in the genocide.
The coalition is urging states to halt arms and energy shipments sustaining Israel, sever diplomatic and military ties, and enforce tangible sanctions.
“The Freedom Flotilla sails once more because our governments continue to fail to meet their obligations,” said Zohar Chamberlain Regev, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s steering committee. She added that at every harbor, the coalition will champion the demand for Palestinian liberation and the right to live with dignity, carrying those demands to the shores of Gaza this October.
The coalition demanded that world governments guarantee safe, unhindered maritime passage to Gaza and make clear that any assault, interception, or seizure of the vessels will trigger severe consequences. It further demanded an immediate end to Israel’s obstruction of food, water, medicine, and essential humanitarian aid into the Strip, urging states to deploy diplomatic, economic, and legal levers to dismantle the siege and hold accountable any party that endangers flotilla participants.
Edward DeGilio, an American engineer from Maryland participating in the mission, acknowledged that charting a course toward Gaza carries grave personal dangers, but stressed that silence and inaction impose a far heavier toll on Palestinians and the world, the statement noted.
Israeli occupation forces previously intercepted and stormed Freedom Flotilla vessels in international waters in October 2025 as they sailed toward Gaza to breach the blockade.
Israeli forces had detained 145 participants from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and the “A Thousand Madelines to Gaza” initiative—including humanitarian workers, doctors, and journalists from several countries—just days after detaining 490 activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI3edwL27J0
Last January, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition demanded an independent international investigation into what it classified as “grave sexual crimes” perpetrated by occupation authorities against participants on blockade-busting vessels. The coalition stated at the time that volunteer testimonies documented systematic sexual abuse and torture within the Israeli detention network.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition formed in 2010 as part of an international civil society drive to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza by sea, building on the work of the Free Gaza Movement, which first began sailing civilian vessels to the Strip in 2008, according to the statement.
