'We will reach Gaza:' Moroccans join largest flotilla yet to try and break through Israel's siege on Gaza

From the docks of Tunis, a group of Moroccan activists prepares this week to set sail on the most ambitious attempt yet to break Israel's blockade of Gaza—a maritime mission involving more boats, more countries, and more prominent figures than any of its predecessors.

On Thursday, "the Global Sumud (previously written as Somoud) Flotilla" is expected to launch from Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports, to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza, defying a blockade Israel has enforced for more than 17 years. 

Organisers said over 50 boats and hundreds of activists would ultimately join the convoy, surpassing the combined total of all earlier flotillas. 

The fleet takes its name from a land convoy that left Tunis in June but was intercepted by forces aligned with Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar near Sirte and forced to turn back.

This time, the Tunisian coalition is working with other civil society groups, including Freedom Fleet, Global Freedom to Gaza, the Global Gaza Movement, and Malaysia's Sumud Nusantara.

Among the most visible delegations are from Morocco.

Seventeen activists, including some of the country's most outspoken figures in the Palestinian solidarity movement, plan to board two boats purchased through donations. 

Unlike Algerian or Libyan participants, who are sailing from their own coasts, the Moroccans chose Tunisia as their point of departure.

"To be honest, we didn't try to reach out to the Moroccan authorities or ask for permission", Ayoub Harbaoui, one of the activists preparing to sail, told The New Arab. 

"We just decided to depart from Tunisia because it felt more doable", added the member of the youth of the Democratic Annahj, a far-left Marxist-Leninist opposition party. 

The Moroccan delegation brings together veterans of the country's human rights and anti-normalisation movements. 

Among them is Khadija Ryadi, a former head of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) and the first North African woman to receive the United Nations Human Rights Prize.

There is also Abdelrahim Sheikhi, an engineer and former leader of the Islamist-oriented Movement for Unity and Reform, as well as Abdelhaq Benqadi, a lawyer known for defending political prisoners. 

Aziz Ghali, another former head of AMDH and pharmacist who worked in Gaza hospitals during the 2008–2009 war, and Ahmed Ouihmane, the president of the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalisation, are also on board.

The flotilla has drawn participants from other 44 countries, including high-profile names such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, Spanish actor Eduardo Fernández, and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. 

Amnesty International has urged Israel to allow the convoy safe passage, calling it an "inspiring act of solidarity."

Israel has scuppered numerous attempts over the 15 years of the blockade, including a 2010 boarding by its special forces in which at least nine Turkish activists were killed. 

But this time, activists insist, the sheer size of the convoy and the breadth of international participation make it harder to stop.

"This is more than a humanitarian mission. It is an act of moral resistance against the silence of the world," said Ouihmane 

The launch comes amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, in which more than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since October 2023, according to Gaza's health authorities, and an ongoing Israeli-imposed famine has claimed hundreds of lives. 

Organisers say the flotilla is meant not only to deliver aid, but to pierce the isolation around Gaza and draw international attention to the ongoing siege.

Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching the militant group.

The blockade has remained in place through conflicts, including the current war.

In early March, Israel also sealed off Gaza by land, letting in no supplies for three months, arguing that Hamas was diverting aid.

Facing the largest ever aid fleet to Gaza, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir presented a plan over the weekend to his cabinet aimed at halting the flotilla.

He threatened arresting participants for a prolonged time in 'terrorist prisons,' so that "supporters of terror would think twice before attempting another such flotilla."

But as the Moroccan activists prepare to embark from Tunis, they remain confident that nothing would stop them, not even Ben-Gvir's plan.

"I don't think they will be able to stop us. We are hundreds of activists. We believe we will reach Gaza this time. Even if stranded at sea, we are carrying enough supplies to survive for a month," Harbaoui told TNA.