ITALY - SEPT. 17, 2025: Boats from the Global Sumud Flotilla anchored in a cove in Italy continued their preparations on Wednesday, Sept. 17, before setting sail for Crete, Greece. Volunteers with the international maritime initiative are moving forward with plans to break the blockade on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. 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. “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. Reporting by Niccolo Celesti / Writing by Ayse Elif Erdis