One of the organizers of the Global Sustainability Fleet (Al-Samoud) announced on Friday morning that the fleet, consisting of about 50 ships and more than 500 activists from 40 countries, had succeeded in breaking the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“The fleet’s mission has been accomplished and the siege has been broken,” said Ramazan Tunç, a member of the fleet’s board of directors.
According to the organizers, despite the seizure of 41 ships by Israeli forces in international waters, the ship “Mikno” managed to enter Palestinian territorial waters near the Gaza coast and deliver humanitarian aid.
The move, part of a broader effort to deliver aid to Gaza amid a humanitarian catastrophe that has left more than 66,000 dead and 168,000 injured, is symbolic of a legal challenge to Israel’s 18-year blockade of Gaza.
Israel, which has described the blockade as “legal,” has intercepted all the ships, arrested the activists, and transferred them to the port of Ashdod.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry continued to claim that the passengers were healthy and in good condition and would be deported to Europe
