Approximately 1,000 boats are set to sail to the besieged Gaza Strip to break the blockade of humanitarian aid.
The mission will gather in Türkiye on Wednesday, according to media reports.
Volkan Okçu, one of the organizers of the mission, reportedly said in an interview with a Turkish news site, Haber7, that boats will carry 4,500 people from 40 countries.
Among the 1,000 vessels would be 313 boats filled with Russian activists, and 104 filled with Spanish activists, he reportedly said. Only 12 Turkish vessels will join the flotilla.
The convoy is expected to make a first stop in Cyprus before heading for the Israeli port of Ashdod.
I hope Israel will not attack them as they did with "#Gaza Freedom Flotilla" in 2010 where #Israel killed 10 and Dozens were wounded pic.twitter.com/VLT8YbIJQg
— Moufid Mostafa مفيد مصطفى (@moufidmostafa) November 21, 2023
Meanwhile, the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) states on its website that plans are afoot to send aid ships to the besieged Gaza Strip before the end of December.
An endeavor titled the International Campaign to Save Gaza has been announced which is a coalition of international grassroots organizations and civil institutions from across the world, which “aims to mobilize advocacy, relief and rescue efforts though all available peaceful and legal means.”
At the forefront of these initiatives “is the prompt dispatch of relief ships and medical aid..,” the campaign said in a statement on the FFC website, on November 23.
The Mavi Marmara Freedom and Solidarity Association, also said on its website that “we are setting out again towards Gaza as a civil and independent movement in line with the decision we made with the International Freedom Flotilla, of which we are a member”.
“Our actions against the naval blockade in Gaza adhere to the principles of nonviolence and non-violent resistance,” it added.
In 2010, an aid flotilla that headed from Turkiye to Gaza, was raided by the Israeli navy. Nine Turkish activists were shot and killed by Israeli forces and several wounded. Another activist later succumbed to his wounds.
Last Thursday, Israeli soldiers destroyed a monument in Gaza dedicated to the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla.
The flotilla was composed of six civilian ships carrying 750 activists from 37 countries. It set sail from an Istanbul seaport for Gaza, laden with around 6,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
In the aftermath of the attack, Türkiye had demanded an official apology from Tel Aviv, compensation for the families of the Turkish activists killed, and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.
In 2013, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized over the incident to Türkiye’s then-Prime Minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In addition, Israel had agreed to Türkiye’s humanitarian presence in Gaza.
(PC, TRT, MEMO)
Pleace let us be allowed to follow everything happening . You are so brave all of You. Even the massakre 10 years ago don’t stop the incitament and will to Free Gaza.
May all our Gods protect You.
Maria.
Jt’s way past Wed. It’s Sun. What’s the holdup?