Outrage as Global Sumud Flotilla on way to Gaza attacked again
Italy, Malaysia, and a host of organizations and activists have condemned the bombing of vessels part of Global Sumud Flotilla sailing towards Gaza to break Israeli blockade
Mediterranean Sea: Italy, Malaysia, and a host of organizations and activists have condemned the bombing of vessels part of Global Sumud Flotilla sailing towards Gaza to break Israeli blockade.
“The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), in the final days before reaching Gaza, is experiencing an alarmingly dangerous escalation, with multiple boats reporting targeted explosions and unidentified objects being dropped on and near the boats, causing significant damage and widespread obstruction in communications”, the organisers said Wednesday September 23, 2025.
“This comes on top of a sustained campaign of intimidation and disinformation by Israel, aimed at discrediting and endangering the 500+ unarmed civilians aboard the flotilla who are attempting to deliver food and medical supplies to Gaza to help end Israel’s illegal blockade”, the organisers said.
Italy, Spain send naval ships to protect Sumud Flotilla
Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto condemned the overnight drone attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
In a statement on Wednesday, Crosetto said he redirected an Italian navy ship towards the flotilla to offer it possible assistance.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said there are Italian citizens along with members of parliament and MEPs among the pro-Palestinian activists in the flotilla, which reported hearing more than a dozen nearby blasts as it sailed off Greece late Tuesday.
“To ensure their safety, the foreign ministry had already notified Israeli authorities that any operation entrusted to Israeli forces must be conducted in compliance with international law and the principle of absolute caution,” it said in the statement.
“Minister Tajani has asked the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv to gather information and to reiterate its previous request to the Israeli government to guarantee the absolute protection of the personnel on board”, it added.
After Italy, Spain also announced it will send a military ship to protect the Global Sumud Flotilla
“A Peaceful Humanitarian Mission”
Malaysia also condemned the threats to the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.
“Kuala Lumpur unequivocally condemns the latest actions that threatened the safety of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Sept. 23, 2025”, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Malaysia calls for such threat of violence to cease immediately, and for safe and unhindered passage of the Flotilla participants and their vessels guaranteed," it said.
The ministry also reaffirmed that the Flotilla is "a peaceful humanitarian mission to deliver urgently needed aid into Gaza, is lawful, morally indispensable given the ongoing genocide and starvation in the Palestinian Territory."
"Malaysia stands in solidarity with Palestine, and reiterates its call for an immediate end to the genocide as well as the illegal blockade of Gaza," it said.
[Latest location of Global Sumud Flotilla (Screenshot of Global Sumud Flotilla tracker at Thursday September 25, 2025)]
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said he has written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper demanding urgent action to ensure the safety of the Global Sumud Flotilla.
"52 boats carrying aid and peace activists to Gaza. The UK must act to assure their safety. Israel is committing a genocide", he said.
We are still sailing. 37 boats are currently heading to Gaza, soon to be joined by six more from Greece.
— Kieran Andrieu (@kieran_andrieu) September 24, 2025
Organisers currently believe only one boat was too badly damaged by the explosions last night to continue.
Night will come in the next few hours and, with it, the… pic.twitter.com/83LKWVef7D
Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, Simon Harris said he is "extremely concerned by the developments overnight with the Global Sumud Flotilla."
"The welfare and safety of people aboard has to be a priority of the international community. I will raise this directly at the UN during Global Alliance on the Two-State Solution meeting", he said.
The Sumud Flotilla is coordinated by grassroots organizers, seafarers, doctors, artists, and solidarity activists from over 45 countries, and is a nonviolent humanitarian mission responding to the ongoing genocide and siege against the Palestinian people.
Israeli demand to dock and transfer aid rejected
Meanwhile the organisers have said Israel’s demand to “dock and transfer” aid is part of its ongoing blockade of Gaza.
“The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s recent call for flotilla vessels to “dock and transfer” humanitarian aid through Ashkelon Port in Israel cannot be understood as a neutral logistical request”, the flotilla organisers said.
“It is part of a long standing pattern: Israel’s deliberate obstruction of aid to Gaza and its attempts to delegitimize those who challenge its unlawful blockade”, the organisers said.
Israel’s record of intercepting vessels, blocking convoys, and restricting routes shows that its intent is not to facilitate relief but to control, delay and deny it. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both condemned these practices as violations of international law and dangerous obstructions of impartial humanitarian assistance.
Israel’s rhetoric against the Global Sumud Flotilla sets the stage for further escalation. Painting a peaceful humanitarian mission as a “breach of the law” is a pretext for violence against civilians acting lawfully to deliver aid. Amnesty has already warned that such threats “flout international law” and place lives at risk, the Sumud Flotilla oraginsers said.
"We are clear... The international community must not treat these demands as benign operational instructions. They are the continuation of a blockade that independent UN investigators have called a form of collective punishment and part of the ongoing genocide in Gaza", the organisers said.
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