Global Sumud aid flotilla to sail for Gaza on March 29

Global Sumud aid flotilla will set sail again for war-torn Gaza from Barcelona on March 29 with expanded international participation, organisers announced on February 5.

“The departure will be at the initial historic departure from Barcelona, followed by Tunisia, Italy, and other Mediterranean ports, and we will sail this time at the date of March, the 29th,” Global Sumud activist Sumeyra Akdeniz Ordu said during a livestreamed news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Caliber.Az reports per Turkish media.

“We will sail with, this time, thousands of participants, including more than a thousand doctors, nurses, health professionals … We will have medical professionals with us. We will have eco-builders with us. We will have war crimes investigators with us, which is the difference between the previous mission,” she added.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is an international civil society maritime initiative launched in mid‑2025, aiming to break the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, deliver humanitarian supplies, and establish a people‑led humanitarian corridor to the enclave.

In its 2025 mission, the flotilla comprised dozens of vessels and participants from multiple countries sailing toward Gaza with symbolic aid, but Israeli naval forces intercepted all ships in international waters before they could reach the territory.

Organisers and international supporters argue the flotilla is a nonviolent humanitarian campaign responding to a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a failure of governments to ensure safe aid access, while critics and Israeli authorities maintain that enforcing the blockade is a lawful security measure.

By Jeyhun Aghazada