A thick cloud of smoke rises after an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
Thousands of volunteers are preparing to leave several Tunisian cities for the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The media outlet TRT Global reports that a caravan of 300 cars is expected to leave Tunis on June 9, an Algerian delegation is also preparing to depart, and 7,000 people are registered and awaiting the green light from the authorities of the countries they will pass through, a number also cited by Wafa.
The initiative, organized by the Coordination Committee for Joint Action for Palestine in Tunisia, consists of a land convoy that will pass through Libya and Egypt before reaching the Gaza border. It aims to express solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged enclave and to deliver essential humanitarian aid.
More than 54,772 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli military retaliatory campaign, according to data from Gaza's health ministry, deemed reliable by the U.N.
The Gaza civil defense stated that at least 36 people were killed on Saturday by Israeli forces in various locations, six of them near a U.S.-supported aid center, with the army reporting warning shots directed at "suspects." Additionally, Israeli forces announced Saturday that they retrieved the body of a Thai hostage taken during the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, during a special operation in Gaza.
Israel is facing increased international pressure to end the war in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is dire, and the population is threatened with famine due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli state on international aid, according to the U.N. Furthermore, a humanitarian ship carrying twelve activists, including Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, reached the Egyptian coast on Saturday and is approaching the Gaza Strip, according to the organizers.
