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A ship with 12 international activists on board, including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, set sail from Catania, Italy for Gaza on Sunday (June 1). Backed by Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), Madleen intends to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
This is FFC’s second such attempt in the past five weeks. Its last aid ship, Conscience, was allegedly hit by Israeli drones while on its way to Gaza on May 2. Israel is yet to respond to the allegations.
That said, Israel has issued veiled threats to Madleen, as it had done to Conscience. And over the years, it has gone to great lengths to maintain the blockade of Gaza, including killing a number of activists on their way to Gaza by sea in 2010.
Established in 2010, FFC is an international movement which works towards “ending the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza”. In a press release, FFC said that Madleen was carrying “urgently needed” supplies to Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.
FFC describes the mission as a “peaceful act of civil resistance”, and says that Madleen’s volunteers and crew are “unarmed” civilians.
Apart from Thunberg, who became famous for her climate activism, other volunteers onboard Madleen include: Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of European Parliament; Yasmine Acar, a German researcher and activist; Thiago Avila, a Brazilian FFC activist; Omar Faiad, a French journalist with Al Jazeera; Baptiste André, a French physician; Yanis Mhamdi, a French journalist working Blast news site; Pascal Maurieras and Reva Viard from France; Suayb Ordu from Turkey; Sergio Toribio from Spain; and Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands.
The aid ship is named after Madleen Kulab, 30, known as Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman. Prior to the escalation of hostilities in October 2023, Madleen would sail into the sea, as far as the Israeli blockade would allow, to fish and support her family.
A ‘dangerous’ mission
Madleen’s launch “comes just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience… in international waters off the coast of Malta — underscoring both the urgency and the danger of this mission to break the siege on Gaza,” the FFC said.
A drone sighting on Tuesday night had alarmed some activists, although FFC later clarified that the drone belonged to the Greek coast guard.
According to Al Jazeera, Madleen is expected to arrive in waters off the coast of Gaza by Saturday. But Israel is unlikely to let the ship dock in order to not “undermine” the blockade, The Jerusalem Post reported.
An Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson has said that Israel is prepared to defend itself in all spheres, including the maritime arena, and that it would “act accordingly”.
As a precaution, Madleen has been broadcasting its real time location for the world to see. It is currently in a southeasterly direction towards Gaza on the Mediterranean Sea, to the south of the island of Crete. On Thursday afternoon, Madleen took a brief detour, responding to a distress call from a nearby ship.
Israel has imposed a strict air, land and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas assumed power. Even before 2007, Israel used to intermittently block movement into and out of Gaza
Apart from erecting physical barriers around the 365 sq km strip of land in the southwestern corner of Palestine, Israel has imposed a naval blockade, preventing international ships to enter Gaza, or local vessels to leave the coastal waters.
This blockade was intensified in October 2023, with Israel stopping the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel into Gaza. Israel briefly loosened the blockade in January this year, after a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect, only to reinstate it in March citing alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas.
Amid growing global pressure, Israel allowed some aid to flow through. But international and humanitarian organisations have warned that prolonged blockades have left Palestinians struggling for food, healthcare, and other basic necessities.
Over the years, many critics have described Gaza as the world’s largest “open-air prison”. However, attempts to breach the blockade have not yet been successful.
Notably, in 2010, several humanitarian organisations, including the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, came together to launch a “freedom flotilla” to Gaza. The sleet was meant to carry aid to Gaza and breach the Israeli blockade.
But Israel intercepted six of the ships, including the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, on which Israeli soldiers made a helicopter landing and clashed with the passengers.
According to the subsequent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report, IDF soldiers fired plastic bullets and live ammunition, killing nine passengers, all of Turkish origin. The surviving passengers, including those on other vessels, were arrested and detained. The UNHCR report took note of the detainees’ accounts of strip searches, humiliation, abuse and torture at the hands of Israeli authorities.
Even as the incident received widespread international condemnation, Israel defended its actions, stating that the flotilla participants “did not have the right under international law to ignore the blockade”.
In 2015, a flotilla of four boats, carrying human rights activists, journalists and politicians, attempted to reach Gaza but was once again intercepted by the Israeli Navy. Three boats turned back, while Israeli forces took over the Marianne, which was taken to the coastal city of Ashdod.
