On June 9, the Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was intercepted by Israeli military forces as it attempted to reach Gaza to break the siege and deliver humanitarian aid. Thanks to high-profile activists with large social media followings on board, news of the IDF’s arrest quickly spread worldwide.
Just hours later, commenting on the incident in an interview with Palestine Deep Dive, UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese issued a call to civil society movements, urging them to replicate Madleen’s attempt.
Vincent Viollet, a French citizen, immediately answered Albanese’s call. That same Monday, June 9, without a precise plan, he created the Instagram page Thousand Madleens to Gaza.
“It was just a way to do something,” Vincent told The New Arab. “I got very inspired by the Madleen initiative and kept thinking of all the people expressing their willingness to do something. So, we could do this together. We just needed to start from somewhere.”
Within hours, the page gathered thousands of followers. Initially unsure how to give the initiative structure and direction, Vincent was determined to seize the momentum and began looking for people who could help turn his idea into reality.
Ayoub Ourdane and Nozha Trabelsi reached out to Vincent just a few days later, sending a message to the newly created page. This was the seed of the coordination team that would help launch the project.
A grassroots, decentralised movement
From the outset, Thousand Madleens to Gaza adopted a bottom-up, decentralised approach to encourage the direct participation of individuals and groups worldwide. The idea is that the project’s strength does not lie in a top-down structure, but in a broad network of activists capable of acting autonomously.
The movement defines itself as a civilian, non-violent, legal, and non-partisan initiative, with no affiliation to governments, NGOs, or political parties. It arises from the need for civil society to act where institutions, diplomacy, and international law are failing: to break the siege of Gaza and shatter the wall of silence that allows Israel to keep killing with impunity.
Ayoub, Nozha and Vincent explain that the “thousand” in the name is symbolic. There is no need to wait until they have a thousand boats, they stress: the key is not the number, but collective action. What truly matters is to act together, with a clear and determined goal.
To ensure the mission’s safety and success, the growing team around the project is working tirelessly.
“We are the three co-leads. This is a big project, and we need people who give consistency to the movement,” Ayoub said. “But we are working with a lot of other people.”
“We’re taking this very seriously,” added Nozha, explaining that the various groups that have formed are made up of professionals with solid experience in their respective fields.
A main organisational priority is crew safety. Since 2007, Israel has imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, making attempts to reach its shores extremely difficult. Israeli forces constantly patrol territorial waters and intercept vessels even in international waters, with arrests and seizures as standard practice.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s record proves it: of 35 missions between 2008 and 2018, several succeeded, but incidents were frequent. The most infamous was the Mavi Marmara in 2010, when the Israeli army killed nine activists. Even the most recent missions — the Conscience in May this year, the Madleen in June, and the Handala in July — all ended with attacks, arrests, and deportations.
For this reason, Thousand Madleens to Gaza has brought lawyers and psychologists into its team, preparing for every possible scenario before, during, and after the mission.
“Our legal team is bulletproof,” Nozha said. “We want our mission to be legal and as safe as possible for everyone. No matter how much we respect the law, there’s still the risk of Israel not respecting the law. That’s why we have professional psychologists who are getting us ready for any scenario. And that’s why we need a lot of people to share and to join, so that we can count on the global outrage.”
Opening the path
According to the latest report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, a man-made crisis due to Israel's blockade and siege.
Between April and mid-July this year alone, over 20,000 children required treatment for acute malnutrition. Projections show that by September 2025, half a million people will be in IPC Phase 5 — the final stage known as “Catastrophe” — characterised by an extreme lack of food, starvation, destitution and death.
The initiative’s top priority is therefore to create a humanitarian corridor through which aid can be delivered to alleviate the suffering of the population in Gaza.
“We are a flotilla made of civilians, so we’re calling competent organisations from all around the world to join us,” Nozha said. “The idea is to have organisations with appropriate means to follow us with their cargo boats.”
But the activists are clear about their long-term goal as well: they will not stop until the siege is broken and effective measures to end Israel's occupation and rebuild Palestinian territories are discussed in the appropriate forums.
Gaza and Palestine as a feminist issue
According to the initiative's spokespeople, the flotilla is expected to be ready to sail around mid-September. At the time of writing, nine national delegations have already formed, with others in the making — including some composed entirely of women. On July 3, the initiative announced a collaboration with the collective Young Angry Women.
In a manifesto shared on its Instagram page, the movement defines itself as decolonial, intersectional, and anti-imperialist, making clear the meaning of its participation in the mission: to highlight the inseparable link between the feminist struggle and the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
For Young Angry Women, feminism is not limited to gender equality: it means dismantling all structures of oppression. Patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism are part of a single system that controls bodies and lives — and in Palestine, this is manifested in its most extreme form. Supporting Palestinian liberation and fighting every form of occupation is, therefore, a feminist act.
‘We are powerful’
“I think we feel powerless, and I think it’s just a feeling. But the fact is that we are powerful, and we can do things together,” Vincent said.
Nozha explained that Madleen’s mission highlighted a form of high-impact activism, giving hope and fresh ideas to that part of civil society that feels lost and helpless in the face of a brutal genocide, yet wants to take direct action to stop it.
“The Madleen is like a hammer, and the blockade is like a nail,” Nozha told The New Arab. “If we can be the next hit, either it breaks the blockade or it’s one of the hits that will help break the blockade.”
For the people behind Thousand Madleens to Gaza, this struggle is part of the legacy of all popular mobilisations that have, throughout history, defeated systems of oppression once thought unshakable.
“There was never a struggle like this that was won through institutions,” Nozha said. “It was rage from the civilians. People say that history repeats itself – well, we are repeating history in the good ways as well.”
The movement thus situates itself within a broader vision that goes well beyond Palestine: the blockade of Gaza is part of a global system of violence and exploitation that takes different names in places like Congo and Sudan.
“When the oppressors in Palestine fall, we believe that at least other oppressors will fall, and that will give a little more hope to others. The message is not about one people. It’s about global rage and global freedom,” Nozha concluded.
Camilla Donzelli is a freelance journalist, activist, and movement organiser, and the creator of Sommersə, a neurodivergent justice newsletter
Follow her on Instagram: @sregolatamente