An urgent press conference will be held tomorrow, 28 July, to announce the largest civilian maritime mission to Gaza since the Israeli siege began in 2007, organised by the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The Sumud Convoy traversed north Africa en route to Gaza last month, with mass popular support from local people, but was betrayed and turned back by the government of Egypt. Now, after the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s (GFF) vessel Handala was illegally boarded and seized last night by Israel, the Sumud Flotilla will bring together organisers and participants from over 40 countries in a peaceful, coordinated effort to break Israel’s illegal siege and end the ongoing genocide.
Speakers at the event, who will also address the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where over two million Palestinians face catastrophic levels of forced starvation and dangerously limited access to supplies and medical services, include key figures from the Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee and leading human rights advocates – as well as leaders of the GFF – including:
• Yasmine Ahmed, UK Director, Human Rights Watch
• Lynn Boylan, Member of the European Parliament, Chair of the Palestine Committee
• Saif Abukeshek, Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee
• Melanie Schweizer, Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee
• Thiago Ávila, Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee
• Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee
Please remember to support Skwawkbox if you can, to help ensure it can keep running. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (Skwawkbox will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your support is hugely appreciated.
Your support is hugely appreciated.
Your support is hugely appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlyThanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so, but please include the donor information above – see here for more.
Just came across this via a Janta Ka Reporter vid posted 18 hours ago:
Former US Green Beret says Israel committed war crimes at Gaza food distribution site
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72aZhsNMOWk (Jeremy Bowen report and interview, posted yesterday 6mins 35secs)
And here’s the Janta Ka Reporter vid:
Double blow for Netanyahu; IDF suffers losses; US media debunks claims on Hamas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfSrGIjOcM (10mins)
Re the latter, Rifat is referring to a NY Times article headlined ‘No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say’, posted yesterday, which, I suspect, most of the MSM in the UK will omit to cover as it of course exposes Netanyahu’s big nazi-type falsehood about Hamas stealing food to justify setting up the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Link to article below.
NY Times article:
No Proof Hamas Routinely Stole U.N. Aid, Israeli Military Officials Say
https://archive.is/7jj8P#selection-529.0-529.71
Democracy Now interview with the same former US Green Beret whistleblower:
Read a piece the other day about ordinary Egyptians in desperation who are throwing water bottles into the sea hoping the tide will take them to Gaza.
Perhaps we need a multi-faceted approach with our dangerous weapons being bread, water, nutritious food & medical aid.
Land, sea, air & post to end the Genocidal Land Thieves Deliberate Starvation Blockade which means to wipe Palestinians out by stealth (illegal under international law).
Sea – such an international flotilla.
Land the most effective method get the lorry convoys in by any method.
Air, the Chinese have lantern festivals but perhaps a million grocery bags carried by helium balloons?
Post-one brilliant slave in the US South years ago posted himself in a crate to the North & freedom!
Ideas welcome!
The following are some of the Live Updates on Al Jazeera today. There are lots more, all of them relatively brief:
3h ago:
Gaza death toll rises to 62 since dawn
At least 62 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza despite a “tactical pause” in fighting to allow aid into the enclave, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Among the dead, 34 were aid seekers.
5h ago:
US ambassador says pressure to let in aid has ’emboldened Hamas’
US diplomat to Israel Mike Huckabee has said that bodies and organisations such as the UN, The New York Times, and Hamas have used “lies and propaganda” to discredit the GHF and sow chaos in Gaza. Experts and international organisations overwhelmingly attribute growing famine and the breakdown of civil society in Gaza to Israel’s blockage of nearly all food entering the enclave.
“Is the UN, NY Times, and Hamas all happy now?” Huckabee, a longtime Israel supporter and evangelical minister, said in response to a video of hungry people in Gaza climbing onto a truck bringing aid into the Gaza Strip.
“I’m sure Hamas is. Their lies and propaganda destroyed the cease-fire deal, tried to discredit safe and functioning GHF effort, emboldened Hamas and will result in this complete balagan [chaos]! Most sad for hostage families-grief prolonged.”
5h ago:
UNRWA chief says aid diversion claims were part of effort to discredit humanitarian groups
Philippe Lazzarini has said that discredited Israeli claims that Hamas was stealing large quantities of aid were part of a wider campaign by Israel to box out humanitarian organisations like the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and seize greater control over aid distribution.
“No proof of aid diversion in Gaza,” he said in a social media post.
“Claims were only aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the humanitarian community & attempting to replace it with a diabolic and politically motivated distribution scheme. It’s time for principled and at scale humanitarian response including through UNRWA.”
5h ago:
Israelis feel international community ‘has lost patience’
Meron Rapoport, journalist and editor at Local Call and +972, says Israeli society feels mounting pressure over the Israeli government’s blockage of humanitarian aid to the Strip.
“People are feeling that the international community has lost patience with Israel,” Rapoport told Al Jazeera, adding that they see reports on international media regarding the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Strip and see the growing number of incidents involving confrontations of Israeli tourists around the world.
“There are also people in Israel who say this [what is happening in Gaza] will harm Israel for decades,” Rapoport said, noting that there is a growing number of demonstrators taking to the streets to end the war.
6h ago:
More than 300 Israeli academics call for end to ‘atrocities’ in Gaza
The senior academics – numbering 341 in total – said they could not “stand idly by while actions leading to a global-scale disaster are carried out in our name”.
Their message, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, was addressed to the Israeli government, the Israeli army, and the general public.
“Stop the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Medical aid, food, and water must be allowed in immediately, and the firing on unarmed civilians must cease,” they said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/7/27/live-israel-intercepts-gaza-bound-handala-5-palestinians-starve-to-death
Meant to include this one:
Hamas says it offered ‘every possible flexibility’ in ceasefire talks
The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, has said that Israel’s decision to withdraw from recent ceasefire talks was aimed at “wasting time” while the genocide in Gaza continues.
“We achieved clear progress in the last round of negotiations and largely agreed with what the mediators offered us, especially on the issue of withdrawal, prisoners and the entry of aid,” said al-Hayya, adding that the group had offered “every possible flexibility”.
“The occupation’s withdrawal from the last round of negotiations and the US envoy’s acquiescence are a blatant move aimed at wasting time and committing further genocide against our people,” he said.
Last week, Israel announced it was recalling its negotiators from Doha or “further consultations”, after Hamas issued what it said was a positive response to the latest proposal presented to it.
_________
We hardly ever get to hear Hamas’s version of events in the MSM! But we ALWAYS get to hear Israel’s version of events in which they invariably blame Hamas for the breakdown in ceasefire negotiations. And needless to say, the likes of Trump and Witkoff and Huckabee always back up and reiterate what Israel says.