Flotilla to Depart Marseille on April 4 to Challenge Gaza Blockade

Overview

• France Palestine Solidarité, which announced the plan Monday, said two French yachts and ten other vessels will depart Marseille on Saturday, April 4.
• The boats will link up at sea with the Thousand Madleens flotilla of 18 ships and then with the Global Sumud Flotilla to form a larger convoy.
• Organizers say the goal is to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver food and medicine to Gaza as a show of political solidarity with Palestinians.
• Claude Léostic said a coalition of about 100 boats could let at least some reach the enclave, which he described as a symbolic breach of the blockade.
• A late‑2025 flotilla of about 50 vessels was intercepted by the Israeli Navy, and Amnesty International and organizers called that seizure illegal after participants were detained and expelled, while Gaza has remained under blockade since 2007.