The Flotilla Global Sumud (GSF) has announced that in spring 2026 will start “the largest coordinated maritime civil action for Palestine to date”con 100 humanitarian aid ships and more than 3,000 participants coming from more than hundred countriesafter its previous operation was intercepted by Israel last October. The organization defined this new initiative in a statement as a “decisive expansion”Well, according to their estimates, the magnitude of this one represents more than double the capacity of the previous one.
Furthermore, they add, that their objective now does not lie in the “simple delivery of humanitarian aid”, but in achieving “sustained and specialized civilian presence” in the Palestinian territories to rebuild “the basic civil infrastructure destroyed by two years of genocide. One of the points in which the new operation will be articulated, as they have explained, is the establishment of a “presence of unarmed civil protection.
“They will be highly trained to work alongside Palestinian communities, helping to deter violence, document (human rights) violations and strengthen local protection and accountability mechanisms, in the face of the Israeli regime’s continued attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure,” they detailed.
List of participants
In the coming weeks, La Flotilla is expected to publish the list of its participants in this new mission, but he has already announced that they will come from “almost all” countries and with very varied profiles. For this “coordinated and nonviolent civil action”they advance, there will be more than 1,000 healthcare workers on board of “vessels equipped with vital medicines and equipment” that will seek to coordinate with local health personnel and on the ground in the case of Gaza.
“The mission seeks to reinforce emergency care and stabilize a health system devastated by the siege and continuous bombings,” GSF referred to in the statement. It is intended to include the food delivery, infant formula, school supplies, medicines and other essential items.
The Flotilla says it is now betting on a replicable model, led by experts and civilians “who have said ‘enough is enough'”, and “supported by millions of people around the world”, based on international law, humanitarian principles and the Palestinian leadership.
Fruit of a failure
The rest of the pillars that support this new mission, according to GSF, continue to be the pressure to “help break the siege” Israeli“vindicating the right of Palestinians to access their coast and the outside world”; support for reconstruction; and an effort to “expose the international complicity that allows Israel’s illegal blockade, occupation and genocide,” they expressed.
“For decades, governments and international institutions have assumed responsibility to protect civilians and respect international law. In Gazathose mandates of the cycle ignored y they have failed resoundingly. This mission arises from that failure. When institutions abandon their legal and moral obligations, the people inherit that responsibility,” said Saif Abukeshek, GSF steering committee member.
The Flotilla Global Sumud It began its first voyage with 20 boats from Barcelona on September 1 to Gaza to transport humanitarian aid and challenge the Israeli blockade in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel Between October 2 and 3, it intercepted more than forty ships and detained a total of 473 crew members who were transferred to the Saharonim prison, in the Negev desert, southern Israel. Something that activists denounced as an “illegal detention.”
A week later, Israel confiscated the nine ships – one ship and eight sailboats – that made up a second flotilla, known as Libertad-Thousand Madleens, and arrested around 145 activists who were on board. The detained activists were deported to their home countries over the weeks following their arrest by the Israeli Navy.
