EXPLAINER
The 12-person crew, together with local weather activist Greta Thunberg, is anticipated to achieve Gaza on June 7 in a ship carrying humanitarian support.
The Madleen ship, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), is en route in direction of Gaza carrying humanitarian support and human rights activists protesting in opposition to Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza.
The vessel has set sail in response to Israel’s whole support blockade of the Palestinian enclave since March 2, which has resulted within the deaths of dozens of youngsters because of hunger. Greater than 90 p.c of the enclave’s 2.3 million persons are dealing with acute meals shortages, in line with support teams.
The Madleen, named after Gaza’s first and solely fisherwoman, departed Catania, Sicily on June 1, only one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, one other Freedom Flotilla support ship, off the coast of Malta.
The two,000km (1,250-mile) journey is anticipated to take seven days, supplied there are not any disruptions.
The ship’s location is being monitored stay by Forensic Structure via its onboard monitoring system. The most recent location as of June 3, at 15:00 GMT was some 600km (375 miles) from Sicily.
The primary of many!
@gazafreedomflotilla#breakthesiege pic.twitter.com/b841jyRsZv— liam cunningham (@liamcunningham1) June 2, 2025
Who’s onboard?
There are 12 activists onboard the Madleen:
- Greta Thunberg – Swedish local weather activist
- Rima Hassan – French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament
- Yasemin Acar – Germany
- Baptiste Andre – France
- Thiago Avila – Brazil
- Omar Faiad – France
- Pascal Maurieras – France
- Yanis Mhamdi – France
- Suayb Ordu – Turkiye
- Sergio Toribio – Spain
- Marco van Rennes – the Netherlands
- Reva Viard – France
Meet the 12 volunteers from world wide who’re crusing on #Madleen within the #FreedomFlotillaCoalition‘s steadfast mission to interrupt Israel’s unlawful siege of Gaza and set up a folks’s sea hall #AllEyesOnDeck #BreakTheSiege #endoccupation #Gaza pic.twitter.com/cimfieivTy
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) June 2, 2025
We’re doing this as a result of it doesn’t matter what odds we’re in opposition to, we’ve to maintain attempting, as a result of the second we cease attempting is after we lose our humanity.
The FFC has emphasised that every one volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are skilled in nonviolence and are crusing unarmed in a peaceable act of civil resistance in opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
What occurred to earlier flotillas?
Final month, one other ship carrying support to Gaza was hit by drones in worldwide waters off Malta. The ship had been in search of to ship support following Israel’s genocidal blockade of the besieged enclave.
The FFC instructed Al Jazeera that the assault on the Conscience at 12:23pm native time (10:23 GMT) on Could 2 blew a gap within the vessel and set the engine ablaze.
Fifteen years in the past, Israeli commandos carried out a lethal assault on Mavi Marmara, the biggest ship in an support flotilla carrying Turkish activists.
The so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla was carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian support and had set out from Istanbul in an try to interrupt Israel’s blockade of Gaza. 9 humanitarian volunteers have been killed on Could 31, 2010.
Gaza has been underneath an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007.
What support is the ship carrying?
In keeping with a press launch from the FFC, the Madleen is carrying provides urgently wanted by folks in Gaza, together with medical provides, flour, rice, child components, nappies, ladies’s sanitary merchandise, water desalination kits, crutches and youngsters’s prosthetics.
Gaza hunger
One in 5 Palestinians within the Gaza Strip is dealing with hunger due to Israel’s three-month-long whole blockade of the Strip.
In keeping with the newest Built-in Meals Safety Section Classification (IPC) report, 1.95 million folks – 93 p.c of the enclave’s inhabitants – are dealing with acute meals shortages.
The IPC says Israel’s continued blockade “would seemingly end in additional mass displacement inside and throughout governorates”, as objects important for folks’s survival might be depleted.
Regardless of an Israeli-led and US-backed support distribution organisation referred to as the Gaza Humanitarian Basis being arrange final month to ship support into Gaza, its new distribution hub disintegrated into chaos inside hours of opening on Could 27 and has been marred with much more controversy following lethal shootings at support distribution websites.
Israel has been accused of luring Palestinians to help centres and killing greater than 100 of them previously eight days.
Israel has killed greater than 54,000 Palestinians because it launched its devastating offensive on October 7, 2023.
