Revealed On 6 Sep 2025
Tunis, Tunisia – At 61 Station Road, downtown Tunis, volunteers are busy receiving and documenting donations for the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla – one in every of 4 organising teams of the World Sumud Flotilla, aiming to interrupt Israel’s siege on Gaza.
The preliminary plan was for the boats to set sail from Tunis on Thursday. However the Tunisian boats should wait till the Spanish flotilla – led by, amongst others, the Swedish local weather activist Greta Thunberg – that units off from Barcelona on Monday arrives, having been delayed on account of a storm.
Beneficial Tales
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One other flotilla leaving from Sicily is anticipated to hitch the Tunisian one on Sunday, with all of the vessels then departing collectively in the direction of the japanese Mediterranean.
On board the vessels will likely be medical doctors, activists, convoy organisers, legal professionals and social media influencers. Contained in the holds: cardboard bins full of drugs and toddler milk – and a few touching messages and presents from Tunisian youngsters to their counterparts in Gaza.
All seven flotillas which have set sail to Gaza since 2010 have been both intercepted or attacked by the Israeli military earlier than even reaching Gaza’s territorial waters. On Could 2, the ship Conscience was struck twice by Israeli armed drones when it was simply 25 kilometres (16 miles) away from the shores of Malta.
Raring to go
Thorough preparations for the flotilla are ongoing in lots of Tunisian cities, together with Tunis, Bizerte, Beja, Sousse, Sfax and Gabes. For most of the volunteers at work in Tunisia’s donation centres, their ties to Gaza run deep, and lots of have felt helpless having watched virtually two years of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, killing greater than 62,000 Palestinians.
Many right here keep in mind native political activist Hatem Laayouni’s becoming a member of efforts to interrupt the Israeli siege of Gaza on board the Handala mission in July, in addition to the Tunisian-led Sumud convoy that tried to get by means of the earlier month.
Each makes an attempt appear to have made Gaza really feel inside attain for a lot of now volunteering to provide and sail inside the newest flotilla. “Tunisians now not assume Palestine is much away. Palestine is shut. It’s undoubtedly not far-off,” says a volunteer who goes by the identify Sahraoui.
Volunteers from throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and america are collaborating, and know that they don’t have any time to waste, notably as Gaza is now formally in a famine.
The crew behind the Maghreb flotilla have labored rapidly. On August 22, the organising committee of the flotilla launched a fundraising marketing campaign and a name for in-kind donations. Ten days later, the vessels have been purchased.
“I can’t share the variety of boats as a result of it’s confidential data, however we’re good relating to boats,” Ghassan Boughdiri, a member of the organising committee, advised Al Jazeera, including, “We have now the precise quantity we’d like.”
Boughdiri additionally confirmed that the names and variety of contributors can be communicated as soon as the flotilla is able to sail.
Donations
Giant quantities of donations, akin to medication and toddler milk, have already been collected and packed into cardboard bins, with organisers prepared to offer extra as soon as Israel lifts its blockade.
With a lot of the preparation work performed, solely the ending touches stay: equipping the vessels with wi-fi, cameras, life jackets and different security instruments.
And for this, Tunisians proceed to hitch lengthy queues at Station Road to donate cash and no matter different presents they’ll.
“The particular factor about this marketing campaign is the quantity of people that confirmed as much as give donations,” stated Boughdiri. “We’ve had folks bringing 5 and 10 dinars [$1.70 to $3.40]. In case your day’s pay is 20 dinars [$6.80], these 5 dinars are so treasured for us. It exhibits we’ve managed to behave collectively to assist our folks in Gaza.”
With help for the flotilla gathering steam all over the world, and extra vessels asserting their participation, there’s hope that the world will likely be pressured to behave if Israel makes an attempt to violently cease the boats.
However although sending humanitarian help on flotillas to disaster zones is permitted by worldwide regulation, it’s nonetheless extra probably that Israel will resort to violence.
“That is the biggest help flotilla to Gaza ever,” stated Sahraoui. “No related mission has been launched earlier than. So we don’t actually know the way they’ll reply. I hope we do attain Gaza ultimately.”
