The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) launched a civilian aid boat to the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday. The Handala departed Syracuse, Italy, with a crew comprised of volunteer medics, lawyers, journalists, and activists. Last month, the FFC sent another humanitarian aid boat, the Madleen, to break Israel’s siege and bring life-saving aid supplies to the starving Palestinians suffering amidst Israel’s US-backed genocidal campaign. The Madleen was illegally seized by the Israeli military in international waters and activists were subsequently deported. The crew onboard that vessel included the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan.
A press release issued by the FFC stated that the “Handala, our civilian aid boat, has officially… begun its journey to Gaza. This marks a bold step in our ongoing effort to challenge Israel’s illegal, deadly blockade of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The boat carries life-saving humanitarian aid and a message of solidarity from people around the world refusing to stay silent as Gaza is starved, bombed, and buried under rubble.”
The group described the Israeli attack on the Madleen: “This mission comes just weeks after Israel’s illegal attack on the Madleen, another Freedom Flotilla boat, which was violently seized in international waters. Twelve unarmed civilians, including a Member of the European Parliament, a doctor, journalists, and human rights defenders, were abducted by Israeli commandos and taken against their will to Israel, where they were interrogated, abused, then deported.” The FFC statement strongly emphasized, “We are not backing down.”
According to the Times of Israel, 15 activists were aboard the Handala when it departed. The report noted that the former Norwegian trawler carrying medical and food supplies, as well as medicine and equipment specifically for the children of Gaza, would sail in the Mediterranean for roughly a week, traversing some 1,120 nautical miles.
The Handala will make a stop in Gallipoli to pick up two members of the French leftist La France Insoumise party, including Gabrielle Cathala. “This is a mission for the children in Gaza, to break the humanitarian blockade and to break the summer silence on the genocide,” she proclaimed.
“I hope we will reach Gaza but if not, it will be yet another violation of international law” by Israel, Cathala added. In May, an FFC vessel was targeted by two drones in an attack off the coast of Malta. The front section of the boat was damaged and the group blamed Israel, though Tel Aviv made no comment. In 2010, Israeli commandos raided six Freedom Flotilla boats and murdered 10 activists.
The FFC press release also detailed the meaning behind the name Handala, explaining that it refers to “the Palestinian cartoon figure Handala, a barefoot refugee child who turned his back on injustice and vowed not to turn around until Palestine is free, this boat carries his spirit and that of every child in Gaza who has been denied safety, dignity, and joy. In 2023 and 2024, Handala sailed to ports around Europe and the UK, breaking through the media blockade, engaging the public, and building solidarity through press events, art installations, and political education in every port it visited.”
After a brief ceasefire period beginning in January, Israel reimposed its blockade on Gaza in March and began slaughtering Palestinian men, women, and children at a breathtaking pace. As Antiwar.com reports daily, during each 24-hour period Israel usually kills more than 100 Palestinians. The FFC statement noted that its recent efforts come as a US- and Israeli-backed sham aid agency, the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), staffed with US contractors, sets up distribution points where Palestinians are deliberately gunned down. Civilians are regularly targeted by Israeli artillery, drones, snipers, and tanks. Credible reporting and whistleblower accounts have indicated that American contractors are also joining in on the Israeli canned hunts of defenseless, starving Palestinians.
At least 800 aid-seeking Palestinians have been murdered and thousands more have been injured. Despite its bloody track record, the US State Department recently issued a $30 million grant to the GHF, which Amnesty International has dubbed another “tool” in Tel Aviv’s genocidal war.
The brutal war on the Palestinians has taken an especially huge toll on children. The FCC’s statement thusly concludes, “The children of Gaza, who make up over half the population, have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives. Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine. This mission is for them.”
On the same day the Handala set sail for the Strip, UNICEF reported that last month, over 5,800 Gazan children were diagnosed with malnutrition, including approximately 1,000 severe cases.
