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The Deir Yasin vessel from the Maghreb Sumud Convoy set sail from Sidi Bu Said port during night as the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla continue to head towards Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in Tunis, Tunisia on September 16, 2025. [Mohammed Mdalla – Anadolu Agency]
Ships of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla will gather near Malta before sailing together across the Mediterranean toward the Israel-blockaded territory, organizers said on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.
“More than 50 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla already set sail from several ports in Tunisia, Italy, Greece and Libya,” the International Committee to Break the Israeli Siege of Gaza said in a statement.
“The ships are scheduled to gather at a rendezvous point near Malta before sailing together toward the shores of Gaza,” it added, without specifying a date.
The committee said the flotilla ships carry relief supplies, medicines, baby formula, and hundreds of activists and supporters from more than 40 countries.
“Many Arab activists and supporters are on board, as well as dozens of public figures, parliamentarians, doctors, and community leaders from North African countries.”
The aid flotilla also includes dozens of participants from several other countries, including Türkiye and Malaysia.
“This flotilla, given its unprecedented size and diversity, is expected to represent a turning point in efforts to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza,” the committee said.
The current convoy is the largest of its kind, aiming to challenge the blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where famine conditions have taken hold under Israel’s months-long closure of all crossings.
The Israeli army has killed almost 65,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable, and led to starvation and spread of diseases.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
A newborn baby in an incubator struggles to survive following Israel’s blockade of food and medical aid in Gaza City, Gaza on March 11, 2025. (Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death due to “depleted” reserves of baby formula.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, due to a shortage of medical-grade formula entering the strip.
Despite a recent policy change by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow “minimal aid” into the strip following a total blockade of food, water, shelter, and medication, it has proven far too little to keep hospitals running and keep people fed. It has proven especially deadly for children.
The AP report quotes Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the few functional medical facilities left in Gaza.
Last week, al-Farah warned that the hospital’s stock of milk was “completely depleted,” and that unless aid was delivered immediately, the babies would face “an avoidable disaster.” The widely publicized call was answered with the shipment of 20 boxes of formula from the U.S. aid group Rahma Worldwide.
Al-Farah said this was enough to meet the needs of 10 babies for two weeks, but warned that in the long run it would be far too little, especially with no guarantee of aid in the future.
“This is not enough at all,” he told the AP. “It solved the problem temporarily, but what we need is a permeant solution: Lift the siege.”
Many other hospitals reported shortages of formula that had not been answered, such as Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, which was completely out of stock.
Fortified milk has become increasingly necessary in Gaza due to the increasing number of premature births. In May, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that as a result of widespread hunger, 1 in 5 children is now born pre-term or underweight. That malnutrition has also left many new mothers unable to breastfeed.
Dr. Asaad Nawajha, a pediatric specialist at Nasser Hospital, told Middle East Eye that the blockade has proven catastrophic for the health of both children and their mothers.
“This all goes back to the [harsh] conditions mothers endure amid this vicious war on the Gaza Strip,” Nawajha said. “Due to the lack of nutritious items entering the Gaza Strip, both mothers and children have been exposed to illnesses resulting from malnutrition.”
The Israeli government’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has insisted that the amount of aid allowed into Gaza is sufficient to provide for the population.
On June 22, COGAT announced that 430 aid trucks had been allowed to enter the strip during the preceding week. However, this is but a fraction of the more than 600 trucks per day that the United Nations is necessary to meet their needs.
Many people who have come to aid sites administered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to obtain the meager supplies available, have been met with deadly violence from the Israeli military.
Since May 27, at least 549 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 injured by Israeli forces at these sites, according to the U.N. Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Media Office reports at least 19 fatal incidents at these GHF sites over the span of just one month.
Many of the victims have been children. According to a study released Thursday by the humanitarian group Save the Children, children have been killed at 10 of those 19 incidents.
“No child should be killed searching for food,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. “This is not a humanitarian operation—it’s a death trap.”
Vote Labour for Genocide.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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Israeli navy vessels and speedboats are seen off the coast of Ashdod as the Madleen ship, belonging to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and carrying 12 human rights activists, is expected to be brought to Ashdod Port after being intercepted by Israel on June 9, 2025. [Tsafrir Abayov – Anadolu Agency]
French lawmakers today demanded the release of detained activists following Israel’s interception of the aid ship Madleen in international waters as it was making its way to break the siege on Gaza.
Leftist France Unbowed (LFI) said in a statement that detaining activists on the aid ship is a “clear violation of international law.”
The British-flagged ship Madleen aimed to break a crippling blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza, where nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of the occupation state’s brutal onslaught since October 2023.
The ship carrying aid, including food and baby formula, was intercepted and boarded by Israeli forces in international waters in the early hours of today before reaching the Gaza shore. It was later towed to Ashdod Port in Israel. The LFI noted that this is a violation of international maritime law.
They also called on the international community to strongly condemn the interception and called on Israel to immediately and unconditionally release the activists.
Meanwhile, the Greens (EELV) slammed Israel’s actions, saying they violate international law.
The party emphasised that reactions to the detention of activists must be turned into global mobilisation, and urged the French government, the EU, and the UN to take action.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition sent the 18-metre Madleen from Catania, Sicily, Italy, to break the blockade in Gaza and deliver aid.
A total of 12 people are on board, including 11 activists and one journalist.
Among them are Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, Yasemin Acar from Germany, Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi and Reva Viard from France, Thiago Avila from Brazil, Suayb Ordu from Turkiye, Sergio Toribio from Spain, Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.
The ship is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics, according to its organisers.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
