The Global Sumud Flotilla, a monumental international fleet of Gaza Strip-bound boats, has vowed to keep sailing towards the blockaded and genocide-stricken coastal sliver, despite successive Israeli attacks.
On Wednesday, the GSF reported that “Alma,” a boat in its fleet, had been attacked by a drone as it was docked in Tunisian waters. The vessel sustained fire damage on its top deck, it noted, but added that the fire had since been extinguished, and all passengers and crew were safe.
It billed the aggression as “an orchestrated attempt to distract and derail our mission,” but simultaneously vowed sustained conviction.
“The Global Sumud Flotilla continues undeterred. Our peaceful voyage to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza and stand in unwavering solidarity with its people,” the flotilla noted, pledging to “press forward with determination and resolve.”
The attack followed one staged on Monday against the flotilla’s main vessel, which was similarly responded with the crew’s assertions of resolve to stay on course.
“Despite last night’s attack on one of our boats, the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF)… [is] preparing to depart from Tunis, pending final mechanical checks, weather assessments, and participant readiness,” the flotilla said.
‘Nothing compared to Gaza’s plight’
“The aggression we endured can in no way be compared to the daily horrors that Palestinians face under Israel’s brutal occupation, bombardment, and blockade,” it added.
The flotilla cited the regime’s daily bombardment of the Palestinian territory as part of the latter’s October 2023-present war of genocide that has so far claimed the lives of more than 64,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
It also pointed to the regime’s having imposed a complete communications and media blackout on the territory as well as its weaponizing starvation through the parallel siege.
The collective instruments of aggression, the flotilla noted, “deliberately seek to silence Palestinians and erase their suffering from the world’s view.” It described the attack on its vessel as a calculated attempt to intimidate the Gaza-bound activists and distract global attention from the genocide.
GSF Steering Committee Member, Saif Abukeshek asserted, though, “We are leaving on this mission. No acts of aggression will stop us. In the coming days, the flotilla will be united at sea in our mission to break the siege, to end the genocide and to stand with the Palestinian people in their just struggle for freedom.”
“We are a superpower as a people,” Mariana Mortágua, a member of the Portuguese parliament, who has likewise joined the flotilla, also stated.
‘Today, it’s Palestine, tomorrow it’s all of us’
Mortágua, meanwhile, underlined that, if not properly confronted, the Israeli regime would go on to expand the scope of its aggression. “We are with the Palestinian people because we are defending humanity and human rights. Today, it’s Palestine, tomorrow it’s all of us. All eyes on Gaza.”
The GSF comprises more than 50 boats, which embarked from Barcelona late last month on a mission to break, what has been denounced by human rights bodies as, one of the world’s strictest and most inhumane blockades.
The flotilla has been described as the largest maritime mission of its kind in decades, carrying delegations from at least 44 countries. Its potential success would mark the first time in nearly 15 years that a flotilla has reached Gaza’s shores.
Israeli officials have openly raged against the mission, with far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatening to designate the activists as “terrorists” and confiscate the boats.
[ SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST EYE ]
