A new flotilla with three thousand participants will depart from Barcelona for Gaza on March 29.

BarcelonaThe Global Sumud Flotilla is organizing a new mission to the Gaza Strip this spring. As announced this Thursday at a press conference in South Africa, the mission will consist of 3,000 participants from approximately 100 different nationalities and 100 ships, which will carry humanitarian aid and specialized personnel—medical workers, war crimes investigators, and engineers—to the Palestinians in an attempt to break the Israeli siege. They anticipate the flotilla will depart from the port of Barcelona on March 29th, with additional vessels joining along the way. In parallel, they have also announced a land convoy, carrying equipment and specialists, which will attempt to reach the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border.

Following last summer's initiative, which was intercepted by the Israeli army when the ships were a few miles off the coast of Gaza After weeks at sea and achieving a strong media and social impact, the new flotilla will sail with larger ships and will be comprised primarily of humanitarian emergency experts. The organization made the announcement from the Nelson Mandela Foundation headquarters in Johannesburg, where they recalled the significance of the struggle against the racial apartheid system embodied by the South African leader, who had also shown solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Mandela's grandson, who had participated in previous flotillas, recalled his grandfather's motto: "It always seems impossible until it's done." Representatives of the flotilla noted that the ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump has not brought peace to Gaza, where 520 deaths from Israeli fire have been recorded since it was signed on October 11. The opening of the Rafah crossing also failed to materialize. Israel only allowed a few dozen Palestinians to leave, out of the 20,000 awaiting medical evacuation, and a few Gazans to enter under strict controls, attempting to return from Egypt. They also rejected the Trump-led cabinet to govern the Gaza Strip and demanded that Palestinians be allowed to decide their own future.

The organization reiterates that international law protects its mission of non-violent solidarity and calls on the international community to prevent any action by Israel or any other government to halt it.