To Break The Blockade, For The Children Of Gaza.
NOTE: Use this tracker to follow the Handala. It is critical that we keep our eyes on the Flotilla and be ready to act if it is attacked.
Siracusa, Italy, July 13, 2025 — Today, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) announces that Handala, our civilian aid boat, has officially set sail from Siracusa, Italy and begun its journey to Gaza. This marks a bold step in our ongoing effort to challenge Israel’s illegal, deadly blockade of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The boat carries life-saving humanitarian aid and a message of solidarity from people around the world refusing to stay silent as Gaza is starved, bombed, and buried under rubble.
Australian activist Tania Safi, on the Handala Freedom Flotilla, mocks Australia’s Embassy in Tel Aviv for telling her to abandon her mission pic.twitter.com/Yjnii3OMGw
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) July 14, 2025
This mission comes just weeks after Israel’s illegal attack on the Madleen, another Freedom Flotilla boat, which was violently seized in international waters. Twelve unarmed civilians, including a Member of the European Parliament, a doctor, journalists, and human rights defenders, were abducted by Israeli commandos and taken against their will to Israel, where they were interrogated, abused, then deported. Their “crime”? Attempting to bring food, medicine, and solidarity to Palestinians under siege.
We are not backing down.
Handala sails in the shadow of ongoing mass atrocities. Since March 18, 2025, when Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed attacks on Gaza, at least 6,572 Palestinians have been killed and over 23,000 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Among them, over 700 were gunned down as they waited for food at distribution points controlled by the U.S. and Israel-backed “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF), a death trap masquerading as an aid scheme, a structure of control and cruelty serving Israel’s genocide.
Handala is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a grassroots international network that has been sailing against the blockade since 2010. On board are volunteer medics, lawyers, social justice activists, journalists, and community organizers. We are not governments. We are people, taking action where institutions have failed.
For The Children Of Gaza
Named after the Palestinian cartoon figure Handala, a barefoot refugee child who turned his back on injustice and vowed not to turn around until Palestine is free, this boat carries his spirit and that of every child in Gaza who has been denied safety, dignity, and joy. In 2023 and 2024, Handala sailed to ports around Europe and the UK, breaking through the media blockade, engaging the public, and building solidarity through press events, art installations, and political education in every port it visited.
The children of Gaza, who make up over half the population, have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives. Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine.
This mission is for them.
70 year old Vigdis Bjorvand from Norway is sailing to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza. A Palestine activist since 1978, she never wants her grandchild to say: “Grandma, you didn’t do anything.” Keep Vigdis and ‘Handala’ safe. Help end Israel’s illegal siege and genocide. pic.twitter.com/5X7JtL1bjd
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) July 12, 2025
