16 ships depart Tunisia for Gaza as part of Global ‘Sumud Fleet’ aid mission

TUNIS: Sixteen ships have set sail from Tunisian ports as part of the “Global Sumud Fleet for Gaza,” a large-scale international flotilla of civilian boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of the territory and deliver humanitarian aid.

Khaled Boujemaa, a member of the Maghreb contingent, told Anadolu Agency that 11 vessels left northern Tunisia’s Bizerte Port between Saturday evening and late Sunday. Three more departed from Gammarth Port near Tunis, and two from Sidi Bou Said Port, he said.

On Sunday, flotilla spokesperson Ghassan al-Hanshiri added that two further ships had left Gammarth Port for Gaza and a third was preparing to depart shortly, bringing the number of Tunisian vessels at Gammarth to eight.

Other boats remain docked at Sidi Bou Said, while vessels from Italy and Spain have already departed. All are expected to rendezvous in the Mediterranean en route to Gaza.

The first vessel of the Sumud Fleet left Bizerte on Saturday, alongside 18 boats from Augusta Port in Sicily, Italy.

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According to organizers, the flotilla now includes dozens of ships carrying hundreds of participants from 47 Arab and Western countries, including parliamentarians, artists and public figures.

The initiative, which began last month with ships leaving Barcelona and Genoa, is described by its backers as unprecedented. Unlike previous single-boat missions that were intercepted by Israel, the Sumud Fleet seeks to send a large coordinated convoy to challenge the blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza, where famine conditions and disease have taken hold after months of closure.

According to Palestinian health officials, nearly 65,000 people—most of them women and children—have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 amid relentless Israeli air and ground operations, which have left the enclave uninhabitable.