Dozens of Palestinians took part, on Wednesday, in the Gaza Strip, in a solidarity stand in support of the \u201cGlobal Steadfastness Flotilla\u201d and in condemnation of the Israeli occupation\u2019s attack against it in international waters while it was attempting to reach the territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Participants in the rally, organized by local elders and community leaders at Gaza City\u2019s port, raised banners reading: \u201cWelcome to the Steadfastness Flotilla\u201d and \u201cOur children\u2019s eyes sail with you,\u201d alongside Palestinian and Turkish flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A maritime message to break the blockade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On April 26, the \u201cSpring Mission 2026\u201d affiliated with the \u201cGlobal Steadfastness Flotilla\u201d set sail from the Italian island of Sicily, aiming to break the blockade imposed on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid, after completing its final preparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the Israeli occupation army launched an attack on April 29 in international waters off the Greek island of Crete, targeting boats carrying activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to flotilla officials, the vessels included 345 participants from 39 countries, including Turkish citizens. The Israeli occupation forces detained 21 boats carrying around 175 activists, while the remaining vessels continued sailing toward Greek territorial waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This marks the second initiative of the \u201cGlobal Steadfastness Flotilla,\u201d following the September 2025 attempt, which ended after an Israeli attack on the ships in October of the same year while they were sailing in international waters, leading to the arrest of hundreds of international activists before the start of their deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taysir Muhaysen, advisor to the Government Media Office, said the event was held in appreciation of the activists\u2019 initiative who sailed toward Gaza \u201cin support of humanity and to break the blockade imposed on the Strip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that they \u201cendured great hardships in order to deliver their humanitarian message to Gaza, which is facing a war of extermination,\u201d considering that targeting them at sea \u201creveals the Israeli occupation\u2019s violation of international and maritime laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhaysen also conveyed a message of thanks to T\u00fcrkiye, its people, government, and civil society organizations, stressing that it \u201chas been a key supporter of the Palestinian people throughout the war, on both the humanitarian and political levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For his part, Ala Adib Al-Aklouk, head of the National Gathering of Palestinian Tribes and Clans, said Palestinians welcome the \u201cFlotilla of Challenge and Steadfastness\u201d and appreciate the efforts of its participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that the flotilla \u201ccarries a humanitarian message at a time when the world is witnessing a decline in human values,\u201d praising Turkish support for the initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al-Aklouk called on the international community to work toward opening a maritime corridor to bring food and medicine into the Gaza Strip, in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions experienced by the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2007, the Israeli occupation has imposed a blockade on Gaza, and about 1.5 million Palestinians out of approximately 2.4 million have become homeless after their homes were destroyed during a war that began on October 8, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The war has left more than 72,000 martyrs and 172,000 wounded, most of them women and children, in addition to widespread destruction affecting 90% of infrastructure, with a UN estimate placing reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the ceasefire agreement in force since October 10, Israeli forces, according to available data, continue their operations through blockade and repeated shelling, resulting in hundreds of casualties, along with preventing sufficient entry of food, medicine, medical supplies, and shelter materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dozens of Palestinians took part, on Wednesday, in the Gaza Strip, in a solidarity stand in support of the \u201cGlobal Steadfastness Flotilla\u201d and in condemnation of the Israeli occupation\u2019s attack… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamic-world","category-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.allzahra.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}