North African 'resilience convoy' heads to Gaza, aiming to break Israel's siege
A grassroots land convoy is travelling thousands of kilometres from the Tunisian capital to Gaza on Monday, in the hopes of breaking Israel's debilitating 18-year siege on the war-battered Palestinian enclave.
Thousands of volunteers from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia left the Tunisian capital in a 100-vehicle convoy to raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and deliver life-saving aid, organisers said.
The United Nations has described Gaza as the "hungriest place on Earth", with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death.
"The convoy will express solidarity with the Palestinian people under siege and deliver humanitarian aid to them," the coordination group said in a statement.
"Participants in the convoy will head to the Ras Jedir crossing on the Tunisian-Libyan border, and travel along the Libyan coastal road to Cairo, then to the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian-Palestinian border, to deliver messages of solidarity and aid to the Palestinians in Gaza," it added.
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The "Soumoud" convoy, which means resilience and steadfastness in Arabic, is reported to include trade union and political figures, as well as human rights activists, athletes, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and members of youth organisations.
It remains unclear, however, whether the convoy will actually reach the besieged Gaza Strip, as Egyptian officials have yet to authorise the convoy's entry into North Sinai.
"This is a message to the people of Gaza: You are not alone," Sheikh Yahya Sari, a member of the Algerian Association of Muslim Scholars, said in a Facebook post.
"We share your pain, and this is a form of public pressure against the occupier in the face of international failure to stop the massacres."
Earlier on Monday, Israeli forces seized control of a charity vessel aiming to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and detained its crew of 12, including activist Greta Thunberg.
The British-flagged yacht Madleen, operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was aiming to deliver a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, to Gaza later on Monday.
However, the boat was intercepted in the early hours of Monday, hours after Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said that Israel's military would use "any means necessary" to stop it from breaching the naval blockade of Gaza.
In recent years, several ships have attempted to break Israel's land, sea and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, but have repeatedly been pushed back by Israeli forces.
In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla mission was attacked by Israeli forces who boarded the ship and killed ten activists.
And last month, another vessel organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience, failed to continue its journey to Gaza after being struck by two drones near Maltese waters.
Since October 2023, over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to Palestinian health and government officials, including more than 28,000 women and girls.
The figure also includes at least 1,400 health sector professionals, 280 UN aid workers - the highest staff death toll in UN history - and at least 227 journalists, the highest number of media workers killed in conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists began recording data in 1992.
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