THE LATEST CIVILIAN flotilla bringing aid to Palestine is departing from a number of ports in Italy this weekend, carrying aid across the Mediterranean to the still-besieged people of Gaza. 

According to the organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, this new convoy is larger than all the other previous ones combined. More than 70 boats are expected to take part.

Among the crews of doctors, aid workers, artists, teachers and builders on board the boats, there are 21 Irish people ranging in age from their 20s to 60s. 

Gaza has been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war that came after the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. Most of the buildings in the strip of land along the Palestinian coast have been destroyed or partially destroyed. 

The Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City during a dust storm in mide-February Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Israel has continued to kill people in Gaza despite a nominal ceasefire with Hamas, adding to the death toll of more than 75,000. 

Flotillas have attempted to bring food and other essential supplies to Gaza before. The last one was intercepted by Israeli forces in October 2025 and 15 Irish people were among those detained in Israel. 

This new flotilla is sailing with the same aim of bringing humanitarian aid to Palestinians, but the activists are also bringing building supplies with plans to “establish a sustained civilian presence” in Gaza and help with the reconstruction of schools, hospitals and homes.

Flotilla participants in Syracuse, Italy on Thursday, 23 April. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

“Teams of doctors, nurses, eco-builders, war crimes investigators, unarmed civilian protectors and others will disembark to work alongside the Palestinian people,” the flotilla’s website says.

“As they continue to endure the Israeli regime’s ongoing attacks, we will begin rebuilding healthcare systems and basic infrastructure destroyed over the past two years.”

The activists also say they want to set up a “People’s Sea Corridor”, which they hope will create a “civilian-operated maritime route to Gaza to ensure unimpeded access to food, medicine, and essential supplies, and asserting the Palestinian people’s sovereignty over their own waters”.

The examples of previous attempts to break the Israeli blockade and reach the Gaza Strip point to a similar outcome for the new flotilla, but one of the aims of the participants is to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians.

“This mission is in part about those joining at sea or the overland convoy. But it is also about the millions around the world who are ready to say ‘enough is enough’,” the flotilla organisers have said. 

As with the last flotilla, the progress of the boats can be seen using the group’s dedicated tracker.