Contact restored with aid ship bound for Gaza

The press service of the "Freedom Flotilla," an international nonviolent movement supporting Palestinians, said overnight from Thursday to Friday that contact had been restored with its vessel, the "Handala," which is carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

"The connection has now been restored. The Handala is continuing its mission and is currently less than 349 nautical miles from Gaza [560 km,]" the organization wrote at around 11:45 p.m. GMT Thursday on its Telegram account.

Communications had been interrupted "for about two hours," and "drones were observed near the boat, which raised serious concerns about a possible attack."

The boat left the port of Syracuse, Sicily, about ten days ago, with around fifteen activists on board.

This former Norwegian trawler, loaded with medical supplies, food, children’s equipment and medicines, had also taken on board two lawmakers from La France Insoumise (LFI), Gabrielle Cathala and Emma Fourreau.

This initiative comes about two months after the departure of the Madleen, another ship that left Italy on June 1 to "break the Israeli blockade" of Gaza.

The sailboat then had on board 12 activists, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg and LFI MEP Rima Hassan, who was detained for three days after the boat was intercepted, about 185 kilometers west of the Gaza coast.

Israel, whose offensive began the day after the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, imposed a humanitarian blockade on the Palestinian territory in early March.

This blockade led to very severe shortages of food, medicine, and other essential goods, and has only been partially eased.