Activists plan bigger flotilla in attempt to bring aid to Gaza
2026-02-06 - 03:06
MANDLA Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, joins members of the Global Sumud Flotilla activist group.—Reuters • Last year, Israel had stopped 40 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla from reaching the occupied territory • UN warns violence by Israeli settlers against West Bank residents ‘peaked in January’, 700 Palestinians displaced • NGO says settlers harassing, evicting Palestinians ‘with IDF, govt backing’ JOHANNESBURG/RAMALLAH: Activists behind a flotilla intercepted at sea by Israel last year while trying to bring aid to Gaza will try again this year, expecting more than twice as many boats carrying up to 1,000 medics, they said on Thursday. The Israeli military halted the roughly 40 boats in the Global Sumud Flotilla in October as they attempted to reach blockaded Gaza, arresting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 other participants. Organisers, who gathered at the foundation of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Wednesday, said they hope to bring 100 boats for their next attempt. “It is a cause ... for those that want to rise and stand for justice and dignity for all,” Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, who was among activists detained last time, told the gathering. “We want to mobilise the ... global community to join forces with us.” Israeli officials repeatedly denounced last year’s mission, and previous smaller-scale attempts to reach Gaza by sea, as publicity stunts. Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its two million residents. Palestinians and international aid bodies say supplies reaching the enclave are still insufficient, despite a ceasefire reached in October which included guarantees of increased aid. Following the ceasefire, Israeli forces now control more than 53 per cent of Gaza Strip where they have ordered residents out. Nearly the entire population is crowded into a narrow strip along the coast, mostly living in makeshift tents and damaged buildings. If the flotilla is blocked again, the activists said it would still be worth it to highlight Gaza’s plight. “We may not have reached Gaza physically, (but) we have reached ... the people in Gaza,” said one of the activists, Susan Abdallah. “They know that we care, that we will not stop at anything until we actually break the siege.” Settler attacks cause record displacement Violence and harassment by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank displaced nearly 700 Palestinians last month, the UN said on Thursday, the highest rate since the Gaza conflict erupted in Oct 2023. At least 694 Palestinians were forcefully driven from their homes last month, according to figures from the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA, which compiles data from various United Nations agencies. The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in late January that settler violence has become a key driver of forced displacement in Israeli-occupied West Bank. January’s numbers were particularly high in part due to the displacement of an entire herding community in the Jordan Valley, whose 130 families left after months of harassment. “What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers’ continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years,” Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin resident, said at the time. Settlers in West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, use herding to establish a presence on agricultural lands used by Palestinian communities and gradually deny them access to these areas, according to a report by Israeli NGO Peace Now. To force Palestinians out, settlers resort to harassment, intimidation and violence, “with the backing of the Israeli government and military”, the settlement watchdog said. “No one is putting the pressure on Israel or on the Israeli authorities to stop this and so the settlers feel it, they feel the complete impunity that they’re just free to continue to do this”, said Allegra Pacheco, director of the West Bank Protection Consortium, a group of NGOs working to support Palestinian communities against displacement. She pointed to a lack of attention on the West Bank as another driving factor. “All eyes are focused on Gaza when it comes to Palestine, while we have an ongoing ethnic cleansing in the (occupied) West Bank and nobody’s paying attention to the West Bank,” she said. Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank is home to around 490,000 Israelis living in settlements and outposts considered illegal under international law. Around three million Palestinians live in the territory. Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2026