Barcelona Departure Set: Global Sumud Flotilla Plans Sea, Land Convoys to Challenge Gaza Blockade

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

International activists announced a March 29 sea and land convoy campaign aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza through mass civilian participation.

The Global Sumud Flotilla will launch a new mission to Gaza on March 29, departing first from Barcelona before continuing from several Mediterranean ports.

The plan was confirmed during a live-streamed press conference on February 5, broadcast from Johannesburg by the flotilla’s steering committee.

Organizers outlined a sea voyage accompanied by parallel land convoys aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza through mass civilian participation — a tactic repeatedly used by international solidarity networks and documented by humanitarian organizations and media coverage in recent years.

“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,” activist Sumeyra Akdeniz Ordu confirmed during the briefing.

“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,” Ordu went on to say.

Organizers presented the initiative as both humanitarian and political. Previous flotilla missions — including those organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition — were described by international rights groups as non-violent direct action highlighting the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while Israeli authorities have repeatedly said such missions violate the naval blockade imposed on the enclave.

Ordu said the flotilla is “an alternative to the (US President Donald) Trump plan,” arguing that Palestinians must be allowed to decide “how they want to rebuild their own homeland.”

Alongside the maritime effort, activists also announced preparations for a renewed land convoy intended to carry medical aid, food, and supplies through North Africa and Egypt toward the Rafah crossing.

A spokesperson said “a new big movement regarding the land, the new Sumud land convoy” is being prepared. He added that despite Israeli claims the crossing is open, Rafah remains a site of “unbelievable suffering,” blaming “the manipulations of the Israeli regime” for blocking movement in and out of Gaza.

“So these human-powered corridors are our responsibility,” he said, “and we should really take our responsibility as people from all around the world.”

Organizers described the effort as part of a longer strategy of sustained civilian presence, with early indications of renewed flotilla activity shared in late 2025 through official channels and statements by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

The upcoming mission follows several Gaza-bound flotilla attempts since 2023. Monitoring groups and press reports documented the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Handala awareness voyage, a 2024 aid mission from Istanbul carrying more than 5,500 tons of supplies that was halted after vessels reportedly lost their flags under pressure, and a September 2025 drone strike on a flotilla ship off the Tunisian coast.

In October 2025, Israeli occupation forces intercepted the first official Global Sumud Flotilla, detaining and deporting hundreds of activists, many of whom later reported physical and psychological abuse in custody. Israeli authorities said the interception was necessary to enforce the naval blockade, which they describe as a security measure.

(PC, Social Media)