Gaza solidarity flotillas have grown into a global, civilian-led form of protest against Israel’s blockade, using high-profile maritime actions to challenge the selective application of international law and signal sustained international resistance and solidarity with Palestinians. The American journalist and activist Chris Hedges has referred to theflotillas to Gazaas the “world’s conscience”. ChannelingRebecca Solnit, Hedges argues that “the numerous attempts by activists in flotillas, to break the siege on Gaza, are a potent reminder that hope comes through acts of resistance and that we must never accept the status quo”.
The Global Sumud Flotillais a global movement of everyday people: organisers, humanitarians, doctors, students, union workers and seafarers, uniting across professions and backgrounds to uphold human dignity and international law. In September 2025, the Sumud “summer” flotilla departed from a range of ports across the Mediterranean and included42 boats and 462 people. To date, this was the largest and most ambitious mission to break the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza.
Among the participants on the boats were the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and the Irish actor Liam Cunningham. Six South Africans joined the mission, including Nkosi Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, former political prisoner and first president of democratic South Africa. Dr Fatima Hendricks, a South African healthcare worker, was also aboard one of the boats, the Amsterdam, that departed from the port of Bizerte in Tunisia.
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There is a long history of using boats as a legal form of protest against oppression. One of the oldest examples was the use byGreenpeaceof small boats to confront whaling ships and nuclear vessels in the 1970s and 1980s. Greenpeace activists placing themselves between aggressive whaling ships and whales, often at great risk to themselves, became emblematic of environmental protest during that time.
There is also a history of indigenous activists in the United States using canoes and boats to protest against oil pipelines by blocking waterways. Finally, during the 1980s, activists in Europe used kayaks and small boats to block nuclear waste shipments along the canals, rivers and oceans of Europe. Underlying the use of boats in protest is the symbolism of water that speaks to ideas of mobility, freedom and resistance against the imposition of borders, often based on colonial laws and the legacy of empire.
Additionally, boat-based protests are highly visible and draw participants from across the world, thus serving to amplify the visibility of the issue at hand. Hamas was elected to power in the Palestinian legislative elections on January 25, 2006, and began ruling in June 2007. Shortly after, Israel began imposing a strict blockade, closing major commercial crossings and severely limiting the movement of goods and people.
In direct response to the deprivation of Palestinians’rights to health, safety and freedom of movement the first, albeit small, Gaza flotillas began in 2008. What was unique about these first attempts was that a handful of them actually made it to Gaza as Israel had not fully enforced its naval blockade. This had changed by the middle of 2009 when the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) began fully enforcing its blockade and ensuring that no boats reached Gaza.
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