Freedom Flotilla Heading to Gaza with Thousands of Tons of Humanitarian Aid?

Other such shipments have taken the route via the Mediterranean Sea or have plans to do so soon.

Those include the Spanish-flagged ship Open Arms, which traveled from Lanaca, Cyprus, to Gaza in mid-March carrying 200 tons of food and other much needed supplies for the Palestinian people in Gaza. It traveled in conjunction with World Central Kitchen, the global NGO focusing on providing food for those in extreme need, and regardless of the risks.

The United States is also supposedly readying its own first sizable food shipments to be delivered by water to Gaza. It will do so after the Pentagon completes construction of a special floating dock facility out at sea and has the first boats ready. Based on current schedules, that could take until early May at best. While that plan might have been well-meaning to do this, it seems now confirmed, so long after it was announced during puppet Biden’s State of the Union message over six weeks ago, that it was exactly what it sounded like at the time: a public relations stunt attempting to convince Americans that the government actually wanted to do something to help the Palestinians, without actually helping them in any real way and continuing the genocide.

By that time, the already full-fledged and widespread starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Zionist Israel will have already cost the lives of tens of thousands. Further deaths in similar numbers from people unable to access critical medical care in the region, after being bombed, shelled, and shot by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would also have accumulated.

Each of these past attempts to provide additional food and other critically needed aid was required to coordinate with Israel. But despite that Israel has been ordered by the mostly powerless International Court of Justice to enable more aid to enter Gaza, under the direction of psychopathic war criminal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s War Cabinet and in conjunction with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Jerusalem government has done everything in its power to sabotage the speed and effectiveness of aid shipments of any kind.

They have done so by blocking entire truckloads of goods because they included items such as chemotherapy medicine and scissors in carefully stocked medical kits, claiming those items could be used to kill Israeli soldiers. They have forced endless delays in searching aid supplies, only to have it go bad in the heat while strewn out in the sands, mud, and rubble surrounding the mass murders carried out by the IDF.

The Israeli military have also fired open people waiting in line for aid to frighten them away. They have also fired on the aid workers themselves, including the horrific Israeli drone murder of World Central Kitchen workers last month. That was the one where the workers were traveling in a clearly marked convoy of a few vehicles, along a pre-approved route agreed upon by the Israeli military via direct communications rather than just being put on a list. It is because of that attack, after many others, that a sizable number of humanitarian aid organizations have stalled in attempting to bring in further aid by the traditional land routes, just as the zionists intended.

Multiple nations, including Jordan, the United States, and other countries have made a show of bypassing the truck routes by dropping aid from the air above Gaza as well. While this might seem an effective alternative, it has proven impossible to manage properly, to ensure that items parachuted to the ground are getting to those most in need fast enough. Both Jordan and have the U.S. have zero problems supplying Israel with arms and other supplies to support the genocide by truck, ship and plane. 

All these past humanitarian aid delivery attempts were carried out in direct coordination with the Israeli government and troops, including allowing the military to inspect everything before it was loaded, after it was delivered into the country, and then again after being deployed on trucks. What is different about the new flotilla is that it is heading for the shores of Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea with no prior permissions and in direct defiance of the Israeli government’s desire and clear intent to halt it.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFL), the international humanitarian organization which put together the current aid fleet, announced its plans for the current deliveries on Friday, April 19. It did so from a base it set up in Instanbul, Türkiye, where it was then in the final hours of readying its goods and ships for the mission to breach Israel’s military blockade off the coast of Gaza and, with the help of leaders around the world, pressure Israel to let the goods enter.

Gaza was put under a formal Israeli air, sea, and land blockade since 2007. Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas became the de facto political leadership organization in the Gaza Strip, with Tel Aviv's help. The blockade has now been in place for 17 years. It is enforced by the zionist forces on all fronts, with ships fired on and prisoners taken from time to time as the Zionist government decides is necessary.

That block is now strangling the Palestinian people to death by denying them basic supplies of food, water, construction materials, fuel, medicine, and more, in direct violation of international law.

During this attempt to penetrate that blockade, the organizers disclosed that its fleet of ships would be carrying over 5,000 tons of food, drinking water, and medical supplies. That is 25 times as much as the Open Arms aid shipment brought in from Cyprus brought in last month, though even with that one it is unclear how much of what was onboard actually made it safely into Gaza.

When the shipments leave, it will be brought there on three ships. Heading the convoy will be the Akdeniz RoRo, a cargo and passenger carrier vessel registered in Guinea-Bissau. The second part of its name refers to the “Roll-On, Roll-Off” nature its quick loading and unloading capability, which is precisely what is needed to bring it so many goods to Gaza as rapidly as possible. The Akdeniz RoRo will be accompanied by at least two other ships carrying the humanitarian aid.

The ships, flying under the Gaza Freedom Flotilla name, were as of the press conference schedule to leave “any day”, with the exact time of departure still held under wraps for now. The ships will travel out from Tuzla, a port located in western Türkiye along the Sea of Marmara, just south of the country capital of Istanbul.

The flotilla organizers were as of this weekend still awaiting travel approvals for their mission. They are securing that approval not from Israel, whose blockade is a criminal act, but from Turkish authorities to allow their ships to head out. The zionist friendly government of Türkiye will not be providing any support for the flotilla and will likely continue to supply Israel's genocide of Palestinians. 

When they do leave, the aid-carrying ships will be joined by an estimated 1,000 doctors, academics, and lawyers, plus additional hundreds to thousands of activists from at least 12 international human rights groups who are bringing their support to the cause. Those sailing with the convoy from other countries include Argentina, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, South Africa, and Spain, and others.

In announcing their mission, Ann Wright, a retired US army colonel who resigned from the State Department because she opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and who is also part of Freedom Flotilla’s leadership team, emphasized the non-violent nature of their mission and their hopes for what it could accomplish.

“The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is composed of unarmed civilians that are here on a peaceful mission to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza and to deliver humanitarian assistance as requested by the International Court of Justice,” she said at the press conference.

 Elliot Adams, a former U.S. paratrooper and ex-president of Veterans for Peace, welcomed the over 40 Americans who are joining the flotilla while the U.S. government continues its complicit role in supporting Israel’s mass slaughter of the Palestinians.

“Israel is trying to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza, with US support, through starvation as well as direct violence,” he said as part of the launch event. “This is a humanitarian crisis and we have got to try to stop it by breaking the siege.”

Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona, said he is joining those who will sail alongside the nonviolent fleet “because our governments are not listening to the people’s demand to stop Israel’s barbaric crimes against humanity.”

“Israeli bombs and bullets are killing Palestinians in Gaza every day and their illegal siege is deliberately starving everybody else,” he told the audience.

Carlos Trotta, an Argentinian surgeon who served with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in multiple locations around the globe, summarized the seriousness and critical timeliness of their mission.

 “It’s an emergency. Children are dying of malnutrition, patients have their limbs amputated without anaesthesia, and thousands are at risk of dying from the spread of infectious disease, all because of Israel’s arbitrary restrictions on aid arriving in Gaza. It is critically important for this Flotilla to act right now to help prevent even more loss of life.”

Huwaida Arraf, one of the organizers for the flotilla and a human rights attorney, called on the people of the world to stand with them as they prepare for what they expect be a difficult mission, with Israeli Defense Forces having in the past proven ready and willing to fire upon and seize aid ships which have attempted to help innocent Gazans in the past.

“Israel’s current siege on Gaza, as well as its 17-year-long blockade are forms of collective punishment, which is a war crime. As the siege and blockade are illegal, Israel has no right to attack or stop our ships,” Arraf said. “We call on our governments, which have thus far done nothing to protect the Palestinian people or compel Israel to abide by international law, to start living up to their obligations and demand our flotilla have safe passage to Gaza. We ask people around the world to join us in this call.”

In preparation for when the ships do set sail and what they may be up against from fascist Israel’s military, the organization stated that all those involved from their end will be given three full days of non-violence training before departure. They will also be briefed on multiple scenarios of what could happen when the Israelis engage, as expected, including how best to protect and defend themselves.

Donations can be made through https://freedomflotilla.org