The mission represents the largest civilian-led maritime effort to date, attempting to break Israel’s 18-year land and sea blockade of Gaza, which has been enforced with the assistance of the Egyptian military in the south.
Drums and cheers from the Palestinian flag-waving crowd could be heard in the background of Rafiq’s August 31 Instagram story, shared after he boarded the Gaza-bound Spectre in Barcelona.
Sydney content creator Abubakir Rafiq is part of the Global Sumud Flotilla.Credit: @abubakirrafiq
“It’s so loud, it’s so hot, there are a thousand people that came out just to support the flotilla,” Rafiq, wearing a black and white keffiyeh, told the camera. “This is what solidarity looks like, this is insane.”
Speaking to this masthead on Wednesday, Rafiq said he felt optimistic about the flotilla’s prospects of success, despite Italy’s withdrawal of support for the international mission on the same day. While Italian vessels had previously escorted the flotilla at various stages of the journey, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged the flotilla to stop and made it clear the naval support would not continue.
“I’m not feeling vulnerable,” Rafiq said. “The Italian government like the Australian government and many governments around the word are complicit in this genocide, so I never expected a navy vessel from them to begin with.”
Hobart scientist Julia Henry is aboard the Polish-flagged Huga. She has four children aged from three to 19, and told this masthead in early September: “While I am not an activist, I have always been someone who will stand up to a bully and intervene in something that I think is not right. I am a protector. I was taught, and I teach my children, that is the right thing to do.”
Also sailing with the flotilla is Northern Rivers filmmaker and climate activist Juliet Lamont, who directed the 2009 documentary The Snowman, and her two daughters, Isla Lamont and Luca Lamont. Juliet Lamont is acting as first mate on the vessel, the Wahoo, that is also carrying Queenslander Hamish Paterson.
On Thursday, Paterson provided an update via social media, confirming that the Wahoo was still sailing and proceeding without interception. He wrote on Instagram: “They jam our internet and our comms with the flotilla so regularly that [it] is hard to get these updates out there.”
Australians Daniel Coward and Surya McEwan are making another attempt to break the blockade with the Global Sumud Flotilla. In April 2024, both Coward and McEwan were set to depart Turkey for the Gaza Strip with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, but the humanitarian aid mission was halted after Guinea-Bissau removed its flag from two vessels.
McEwen was also part of a Freedom Flotilla Coalition mission that was aborted in May 2025 after being attacked by drones in international waters off the coast of Malta. On September 24, McEwen said on Instagram that his boat, Luna Bark, had been hit with explosives.
“The boat is damaged, but other than some hearing loss, everyone onboard is OK and determined to carry on,” he wrote.
That same night, Rafiq’s vessel, Spectre, was also hit by drones, he said in an Instagram video. No injuries or casualties were reported. Israel has not commented on whether it was responsible for the alleged attacks last week, though it has repeatedly said it would not allow the Global Sumud Flotilla to reach Gaza, and has linked the flotilla with Hamas.
On September 30, Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a post, “Official Hamas documents found in the Gaza Strip”, on X claiming they prove Hamas is directly involved “in the funding and execution” of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Maria Elena Delia, a spokesperson for the flotilla, rejected the allegations and labelled them “propaganda” in a statement to news agency Ansa.
New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based GP Bianca Webb-Pullman, who is sailing with the flotilla, previously labelled Israel’s allegations that it’s associated with Hamas as offensive.
“I can tell you that this is a people’s movement,” Webb-Pullman said from the sea in a video shared to Instagram on September 24.
“It’s quite offensive to me as a healthcare worker to have this accusation made because, as healthcare workers, there are many of us on this flotilla; it is absurd … This accusation is incorrect, and we have seen it used by Israel against healthcare workers in Gaza repeatedly.”
Are Hollywood actors sailing with the flotilla?
Part of the crowd in Barcelona was Irish actor Liam Cunningham, best known for playing Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones.
“The fact that you guys are here and the flotilla is happening is an indication of the world’s failure to uphold international law and humanitarian law,” Cunningham said in a pre-departure press conference. “It is a shameful, shameful period in the history of our world.”
Cunningham is one of the tens of thousands from across the globe registered with the Global Sumud Flotilla, participation in which includes supporting the movement financially or with publicity in lieu of sailing.
American actress Susan Sarandon has also expressed her support for the flotilla, as has Swedish actor Gustaf Skarsgård, who is the son of Stellan Skarsgård and brother of Alexander Skarsgård and Bill Skarsgård. Cunningham, Sarandon and Skarsgård are not sailing with the flotilla.
How did we get here?
On August 31, 300 people boarded at least 20 ships in Barcelona, Spain, and set sail for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. More ships joined the maritime convoy from Tunisia and Catania on September 7, though on September 27, the Family Boat stopped its journey after being stranded off Crete due to a “catastrophic technical failure”.
It’s estimated that between 50 and 70 ships from 44 countries are attempting to deliver food, water and medicine to Gaza. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said in August that the Gaza Strip’s largest city, Gaza City, is gripped by famine. Two weeks later, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report confirming Israel is responsible for genocide in Gaza.
Last week, Italy, which has urged the flotilla to accept an alternative aid distribution proposal from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Cyprus, and Spain deployed naval vessels to monitor the flotilla following alleged drone attacks. Italy’s frigate was set to stop once the flotilla got within 150 nautical miles (278 kilometres) of Gaza. Greece’s coastguard also monitored the flotilla when it was sailing through its rescue area, and Reuters reports Turkey has been monitoring the flotilla with drones.
This Global Sumud Flotilla is the fourth attempt to break the maritime blockade against Gaza this year, and it marks Thunberg and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila’s second attempt. They were detained, alongside 10 others, by Israeli forces in June when the British-flagged Madleen was seized roughly 100 nautical miles (approximately 185 kilometres) away from Gaza in international waters.
In July, Australian activists Tania “Tan” Safi and Robert Martin were detained and deported to Australia after Israeli military personnel seized the Handala off the coast of Gaza.
Prior to Global Sumud Flotilla, the largest civilian-led maritime mission against Israel’s blockade of Gaza was the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Nine activists were killed, and several activists were injured, after Israeli forces raided the flotilla in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
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