A ship from the Global Sumud Flotilla waving an Indonesian and Palestinian flag. (Source: kliksumut.com)

Warta Kema – The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) is a fleet of ships that is composed of 40 vessels carrying 500 participants from 47 different countries, all setting sail for the occupied Gaza Strip. The name “Sumud”, derived from the Arabic word for “steadfastness” or “resilience”, the GSF is the largest civilian-led convoy of its kind in history. The GSF movement was initiated around July of 2025, amidst the genocide taking place in Gaza; however, the convoy itself only began to make for Gaza a month after. By August, ships had already started to set off for Gaza from Otranto and Genoa, Italy, and Barcelona, Spain. These were shortly followed by ships from Catania, Italy, Syros, Greece, and Tunis, Tunisia, a month later in early September. 

The GSF civilian movement is the result of the combined effort of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the Global March to Gaza (GMTG), the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, and Sumud Nusantara, which are all civil society-led movements with the shared goal of establishing a peaceful humanitarian corridor into the occupied Gaza Strip. The GSF features many prominent figures and familiar faces, such as climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg, the grandson of famous South African activist Nelson Mandela – Mandla Mandela, and the French actress Adele Haenel. These well-known individuals are among the hundreds of people on board the Flotilla, all with one mission: to deliver aid to the starving people of Gaza. The passengers among the Flotilla possess differing mother tongues, races, ethnicities, and social status, and yet they were all united under one cause, and that is to not only to create a humanitarian corridor in order to deliver aid to starved people of Gaza, but most important of all to deliver the message that the world has not forgotten about Palestine and to expose Israel’s cruelty. 

The Barcelona fleet made its way to Gaza on the 1st of September due to bad weather the previous day, and just as they made it to international waters, passengers aboard immediately noticed unidentified drones above them. On September 3rd, the main fleet made a brief stop on the islands of Menorca and Mallorca to fix some small issues, with some smaller boats sailing back to Barcelona. 

Other convoys from Sicily, Cyrus, and Tripoli make their way to the capital of Tunisia, Tunis, intending to merge with the Barcelona fleet, all with relatively little complications. The Barcelona fleet managed to reach Tunis on the 7th of October. However, once in Tunis, the Fleets received their first major intimidation attempts from the Israeli government. The Family boat was set on fire due to a drone strike on the night of September 8th. The night after, another drone strike set ablaze the British-flagged Alma ship. There were no casualties reported after both attacks.

On the 17th of September, the 24 boats from Barcelona and Tunis merged with 70 more Italian vessels on the southern tip of Sicily. On their arrival at Porto Palo on the 17th of September, local citizens and sailors assisted the flotilla in its maintenance. 

While on Greek waters, the fleet spotted 3 more unidentified drones above them. On the 23rd of September, the Greek flotilla, still separated from the rest, had been attacked off the coast of Creed, where it was circled by about 15 drones dropping flash grenades on board. No casualties were reported after the incident. Shortly after, both the Italian and Spanish governments announced that they would deploy military naval vessels to officially protect the GSF from Israeli aggression. Though the Spanish and Italian naval vessels did not intend to create a confrontation with the Israeli military, they managed to accompany the GSF up to 120 and 150 nautical miles (approximately 220 and 277 km) from the Gaza coast, respectively. 

It was on October 1st, 17:30 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), when Israel fired their first signal demanding the Flotilla to cease all operations. By that time, the Flotilla had already been expecting an interception within the following hour. By 17.45 that same day, Israel’s Interception of the GSF ships had begun. Despite the threat of interception, the ships continued on to Gaza, one ship (the Mikeno) even reportedly reached 7 Nautical Miles or around 13 Kilometres from the coast of Gaza before losing contact with the GSF crew; traveling at 7 Knots, it would have reached the coast of Gaza within an hour–had it not been intercepted. Israel, however, claimed that none of the vehicles ever got that close to the coast of Gaza.  If the Mikeno were to have reached 7 Nautical Miles from the Gaza shore, it would have been the first ship to have gotten that close to the coast of Gaza ever since the implementation of the Naval Blockade in 2009. 

According to GSF and FCC organizers tracking the boats online, all but one of the 43 vessels were intercepted or seemingly stopped by Israeli forces. In a statement released by the GSF, on October 2nd, 443 activists aboard the GSF vessels were abducted by gunpoint by the Israeli military, as captured by the GSF’s live stream on YouTube. American on board the GSF reports that a naval vessel approached them when they were still offshore, around 70 nautical miles (129 km) from the Gaza coast. As of now, all the activists abducted by the Israeli military have been released from Israeli custody.

Reporter: Aura Lintang Nuraisha

Editor: Putri Adelia Ardini, Maheswara Adla Wibowo, Andrea Hillary Gusandi, Syafina Ristia P