As a direct result of Israel’s blockade on food supplies, mass starvation is continuing to take hold across Gaza, and UN-backed experts have finally declared a famine. Because the world’s governments have so far failed to intervene, the task of breaking the blockade has fallen on an international community of everyday people. We spoke to a representative of The Global Sumud Flotilla, a new coalition which is planning to break the siege and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Below, he tells us more.

WHAT IS THE GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA?

A flotilla – a fleet of small ships – is due to set sail towards Gaza this autumn, and it is expected to be the largest yet. Taking its name from the Arabic word for ‘resilience’, The Global Sumud Flotilla is an international coalition of different organisations, including Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Global Movement to Gaza, and the Sumud Nusantara and participants from over 39 countries. Greta Thunberg has announced that she will be taking part, following a first attempt earlier this year, as will several crew members of previous voyages. Departing from Spain on August 22 and Tunisia on September 14, dozens of ships will be delivering the basic necessities of life, from food to medical supplies, which Israel has been denying Palestinians.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The situation on the ground in Gaza is as urgent as it’s ever been. According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 266 people have now died of malnutrition, including 122 children, and experts warn that the effects of this man-made famine may be long-lasting and irreversible. More and more people are dying every day due to a lack of medical supplies and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of accessing healthcare. People are also still being killed by intensifying air strikes or shot at while lining up for aid, and as Israel embarks on a new invasion of Gaza City, the death toll is set to rise even higher. The Israeli military’s own classified documents, published by +972 magazine, suggest that around 83 per cent of the people killed so far have been civilians. 

“I am doing this because I have no answer to the question that my kids might ask me in 20 years: ‘what have you done?’ It’s a question that every one of us should be asking,” Saif Abukeshek, a Palestinian activist and a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s steering committee, tells Dazed. “We are watching people dying of hunger, and not because of a lack of resources. This is a man-made disaster: access to food, water and medicine is being used as a weapon. The genocide has been going on for the last 22 months, and no country has been able – or willing – to guarantee the safety of civilians.”

HAS SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEEN TRIED BEFORE?

Many times. Israel’s blockade of Gaza officially began in 2007 (in reality, its Palestinian residents had faced tight restrictions for much longer than that) and activists first began attempting to break the blockade by sea the following year. A handful of these early trips were successful, but in 2010, Israeli forces boarded vessels which formed the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and killed nine activists. Since then, every attempt to deliver aid to Gaza by sea has been intercepted or attacked by Israel, or prevented from departing in the first place

Over the last 22 months, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC) has organised several attempts to break Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to its population by sea, but they have all been intercepted or attacked before arrival. In May, a ship named The Conscience was hit by drone strikes off the coast of Malta, which caused a fire and a breach in the hull, and left four activists with minor injuries (Israel declined to comment on whether it was responsible). Later that month, IDF soldiers boarded the Madleen ship and unlawfully detained its crew members. The Handala, which set sail in June, was met with an even more violent response: American labour activist Chris Smalls, notably the only Black crew member on board, was violently assaulted by Israeli soldiers after the ship was intercepted.

There have also been attempts to reach Gaza through land. This June, the Sumud Convoy saw around a thousand people attempt to travel from Tunisia to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Israel, until the Libyan government blocked their passage. At the same time, thousands of people tried to walk to Rafah from the nearby city of Arish under the banner of the Global March to Gaza. They were met with a violent crackdown from the Egyptian government, and hundreds of activists were either detained or deported. 

WHAT DID ALL THIS ACHIEVE?

Even if these voyages didn’t reach Gaza, they shouldn’t be seen as failures. The amount of humanitarian aid which could be transported on a small ship like the Madleen, which the organisers themselves described as “symbolic", was never going to make a dent in the mass starvation which Israel has inflicted on Gaza. But as well as being a powerful gesture of solidarity, the mission brought a huge amount of media attention and forced international states to engage in various ways, even if by exposing their own cowardice and complicity.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT THIS TIME?

In light of Israel’s history of aggression, it is not an exaggeration to say that everyone who takes part in the flotilla is risking their safety, or even their lives. “It’s true there are risks involved, but none of them compare to what Palestinians are facing every second in Gaza,” Abukeshek says. As for whether he expects the international community to ensure the flotilla’s safe passage, he says it’s not a matter of opinion. “It’s not a debate; it’s not a question of us thinking it would be nice for them to do this or that – they have a legal obligation to protect humanitarian missions, and the expectation is for them to act on those obligations.”  

Then again, the necessity of the Global Sumud Flotilla is in large part due to the failure of the international community to meet its legal and moral obligation to prevent genocide – the British navy would likely stand a better chance of breaking the siege and delivering a meaningful amount of aid than a fleet of small vessels manned by civilians, but Labour has shown time and time again that is unwilling to take real action against Israel. “These governments are very good at lecturing us about human rights, freedom, justice and equality, and in 30 years time, they will be happy to open museums for Palestinian victims and promise it will never happen again,” Abukeshek says. “But the genocide in Gaza is only escalating. We are no heroes, and definitely we are not there to save the Palestinians. We are there to do one basic responsible action as civil society, because our leaders have failed to do their job.”

HOW CAN PEOPLE GET INVOLVED?

This autumn’s flotilla is only the beginning. “We are trying to establish a global solidarity movement to fight oppression. There will be more actions, whether that’s flotillas, marches or strikes,” says Abukeshek. If you would like to support the movement, there are several ways you can get involved: the organisers are still looking for experienced crew members and captains to take part in the upcoming voyages, you can donate to its operational costs, and there are various opportunities to support the voyage from land.