THE GAZA TRAGEDY AND THE WOULD-BE MARTYRS OF THE FLOTILLA

The criminal and bloodthirsty designs of Israeli capitalism to drive out all Palestinians still settled in the territories of interest to it have been meticulously planned and are being progressively implemented by the government clique led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ably assisted in this hellish scheme by National Security Minister Ben-Gvir.

The most devastating blow to this plan came as a retaliatory response to the massive “surprise” attack orchestrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, an event regarding which one must be precise and blunt, which resulted in the deaths and hostage-taking of hundreds upon hundreds of Israeli civilians and military personnel. The notion that the events of October 2023 caught the Israeli government and state by surprise is as absurd as the idea of ​​flying donkeys.

This fact has been glossed over with the usual reticence by the entire information apparatus, regardless of political affiliation, something both obvious and natural, given the absolute wall of lies and complicit silence erected by the press and all other dissemination systems of the bourgeois world in the wake of that desperate and militarily senseless act.

It is certainly implausible that an intelligence system as powerful and organized as Israel’s knew nothing about an armed attack being prepared beyond a border it had erected itself, and which was undoubtedly under the tight, pervasive surveillance of who knows how many spies recruited from among the Palestinians themselves.

Indeed, some time later, following an Israeli retaliatory operation launched with great ferocity, there was a partial admission from much of the European and non-European press: it emerged that the military movements leading up to the desperate attack were well known and documented. However, this vast amount of information, lacking a “definitive” date, as even Israeli intelligence sources reported, was not given adequate consideration; despite being reliable, it was disregarded while awaiting further evidence.

In short, a level of carelessness that allowed for the massacre of so many young Israelis, and this speaks to the seriousness of state public information mechanisms. Some truth has emerged, yet just enough to conceal the probable, far graver truth.

Faced with this evidence, voiced quietly and through gritted teeth by the international press, one might suspect that the casus belli was deliberately manufactured to put an end, once and for all, to the “festering sore” of Gaza.

Regarding Hamas, too, the global press could not help but construct a suitable smokescreen of half-truths and omitted facts, solely to denounce its terrorist nature (which is certainly real), without, however, explaining the historical process that led to the organization’s emergence, development, and funding.

Hamas is the political-military movement that won the elections held in the Gaza Strip, a territory home to two million Palestinians that it continues to administer, control, and financially support to this day. It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with roughly four thousand people per square kilometer; in reality, however, it is an open-air concentration camp.

Elections that Israel was careful not to denounce or sabotage. In reality, this is an organization that was helped to grow and achieve dominance by Israel itself, cynically used against the previous Palestinian organization, the PLO, and other minority non-secular factions.

In its 1988 charter, Hamas stated that Palestine is an Islamic homeland that could never be ceded to non-Muslims and that waging a “holy war” to wrest control of Palestine from Israel was a religious duty for Palestinian Muslims.

Dozens of countries, including Israel, the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization, although some, for various reasons, refer only to its military wing.

Under the pretext of definitively rooting out Hamas terrorists and all the organizations controlling the Gaza Strip, Israeli capitalism immediately declared total war on the group, launched heavy bombardments on Gaza, and ordered a “total siege” of the Strip, cutting off supplies of electricity, fuel, food, and water.

These bombardments were, and still are, aimed at destroying the vast network of underground tunnels dug beneath that territory; according to some Israeli estimates, there are around a thousand of them, extending for some one hundred kilometers.

The first rudimentary tunnels beneath the Strip were dug in the late 1980s, when Israeli armed forces were militarily occupying the territory; excavation continued even after 2005, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the withdrawal of the occupying army, creating the false impression of a “liberation” of the territory into a “free” Palestinian enclave.

The following year, Hamas won the elections, and in 2006 work began on expanding and modernizing the dense network, known as the “Gaza Metro”, through which everything essential to carrying out Hamas’s plans moves in both directions: personnel, materials, weaponry, and supplies of all kinds.

In 2014, the Israeli army once again invaded the enclave with the stated aim of destroying the tunnel network, resulting in the deaths of several thousand Palestinians, including Hamas militants, but mostly ordinary civilians.

Despite repeated Israeli bombardments and acts of sabotage by Egypt, which feared, and still fears, both reprisals from the Tel Aviv government and a massive exodus of desperate Palestinians into its territory, the network has consistently been rebuilt, even though the Israelis have attempted to halt its expansion by constructing their own underground wall, stretching 65 kilometers and reaching depths of tens of meters.

While the chancelleries of the “civilized” world barely conceal their satisfaction with the “dirty work” carried out by Bibi Netanyahu in his attempt to destroy this massive network of “Islamic terrorists,” television networks and newspapers dwell on documenting the destruction of whatever remains standing after years of bombardment and painful deprivations endured by the people of Gaza. They have nowhere to go, as no “civilized” country is willing to take them in, and they are forced to constantly move between areas already devastated by airstrikes while the Israeli army proceeds to “clear” the designated territory, an operation that, according to local health authorities, has resulted in over 65,000 deaths during this latest phase.

While public outrage over the October 7th massacre was intense, albeit disputed by the contentious history surrounding the founding and expansion of the State of Israel, the indignation is far stronger and more widespread regarding the slaughter that has dragged on for years against the desperate people of Gaza, who rely entirely and exclusively on “humanitarian” aid from a select group of authorized international agencies. Over time, religious and charitable institutions have been excluded due to accusations, or even mere suspicions, of collusion with terrorist organizations. In effect, the Gaza Strip is completely cut off from any outside initiatives.

It is equally natural that, within the vast and turbulent sea of ​​indignation, various currents and attempts persist to alleviate such suffering, aiming to provide essential humanitarian aid to the desperate people of the Strip and, above all, to keep the global conscience awake to a massacre calculated and planned to resolve, once and for all, the troublesome and dangerous “Palestinian question.”

Among these attempts, the adventurous expedition of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) has recently been publicized and widely documented; according to the Difesa Online website:

It is an international, non-governmental coalition of over 50 civilian vessels, with participants from 44 countries, formed in the summer of 2025. The term sumud (Arabic for “steadfast resistance” or “perseverance”) evokes the tenacious will to resist in the face of adversity. The flotilla’s stated goal is to challenge the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, a siege in place for 18 years, in order to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians and establish a grassroots, civil society-led humanitarian corridor. This initiative represents the largest maritime solidarity mission to Gaza ever organized, bringing together hundreds of activists, doctors, legal experts, parliamentarians, and volunteers united by the motto: “The siege and the genocide must end.”

A little further on they explain to us that

“The peaceful action of this civilian flotilla aims to ensure that Gaza is not forgotten. The Flotilla thus embodies a form of grassroots diplomacy: pressure exerted by global public opinion and civil society to urge Israel and the international community to address the humanitarian emergency. Indeed, according to independent observers and United Nations rapporteurs, this initiative arose from the international community’s failure to end the illegal blockade of Gaza, highlighting how the Flotilla fills a void left by traditional diplomatic inaction.”

In other words: step aside, you inept and well-paid officials of every rank and level, whether from the West or the diverse Arab world, for now, we are taking over!

Naturally, the question of why this has persisted for so many years, despite the numerous proclamations and promises of assistance from all parties involved, is never raised or addressed.

From our journal *Comunismo* (No. 12/1983), specifically the article “Marxist Lesson on State Formation and Social Struggles in the Middle East”, we read the following in Point 2 of the appendix, “Key Points on the Middle East Question”:

“While the birth of the State of Israel met imperialism’s need to establish a solid bridgehead, it also acted as a decisive factor in disrupting the region’s political equilibrium and backward economic structure. The Israeli bourgeoisie, rich in capital, technical expertise, and highly skilled labor, acted not in obedience to some alleged “Zionist doctrine,” but rather to the iron laws of capitalism. It was a young capitalism that underwent the characteristic cycle well known to the Marxist school: the forced expropriation of poor peasants, with the complicity of the Arab landowning classes; aggression toward neighboring backward states and the conquest of new, strategically and economically important territories; and the emergence of a modern industry alongside the formation of a mass of pure proletarians.”

The Israeli bourgeoisie has pursued this project cold-bloodedly, without hesitation and heedless of any external objections, confirming that a “capitalism with a human face” neither exists nor can exist, much to the chagrin of all the pious, well-meaning souls across the globe.

Since 2008, some vessels from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) have managed to breach the naval blockade of Gaza, and two of them, belonging to the Free Gaza Movement, founded in 2006, succeeded in reaching Gaza. In the following years, another five vessels managed to breach the blockade and dock at the Strip.

Since 2010, dozens of vessels have attempted to reach Gaza but have all been intercepted by the Israeli Navy.

The most dramatic incident occurred on May 31, 2010, when the Mavi Marmara, a 93-meter Turkish passenger ship serving as the flagship of the Freedom Flotilla (comprising six vessels of various sizes and carrying a total of 600 activists attempting to breach the naval blockade), was boarded by Israeli special forces arriving via helicopter and fast boats, while located 200 km northeast of Gaza and 64 km off the coast.

Following the violent clash between special forces and activists armed with improvised weapons, eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American were killed and sixty people were wounded, while ten Israelis sustained injuries.

The incident sparked a severe clash between Turkey and Israel, followed by a deterioration in diplomatic relations. Reconciliation between the parties took place in 2016, when Israel paid $20 million in compensation to the victims’ families.

We certainly do not intend to get drawn into the numerous legal debates surrounding the “San Remo Manual”, finalized in 1994 by a group of experts in maritime law and humanitarian legislation, which concerns the alignment of international laws applicable to maritime operations in areas of armed conflict involving humanitarian convoys.

The debate regarding the application of Paragraph 60E, which mandates halting navigation for inspections, versus the subsequent Paragraph 47C concerning humanitarian convoys is utterly hypocritical. This applies not only at sea but everywhere, in situations where international law is pitted against the rights of those wielding the most powerful weaponry.

In June and July 2025, there were two further attempts to reach Gaza to deliver aid by sea, but both were blocked by the Israeli navy. Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir promptly presented a plan to neutralize any future arrival attempts by activists labeled as terrorists. As a deterrent, he decreed that all arrested “terrorists” would be taken to the notorious Israeli maximum-security prisons of Ketziot and Damon and subjected to a harsh, uncompromising regime.

Following the grim experience of the Mavi Marmara, the flotilla organizers distributed a handbook to participants in last September’s expedition, advising them on how to conduct themselves in the event, deemed certain, of being boarded and facing any kind of confrontation with Israeli forces; as one organizer put it: “We fear for our safety, but we summon our courage. The Palestinian people teach us how.” A legal team was also made available to assist activists should they be detained.

Also ignored were suggestions from various European foreign ministries, including Italy’s, to activists proposing that the permitted aid cargo be handed over to authorized Israeli and international organizations, which would then deliver it by land to various distribution centers. It is worth noting that the list of prohibited goods includes cement, which Israel claims would almost certainly be used by Hamas to rebuild damaged tunnels.

It has been wryly noted that these shipments do little to serve the humanitarian cause, appearing instead to be a deliberate, politicized provocation. Indeed, the approximately two tons of aid declared by the GSF for the 2025 shipment represent a negligible amount in terms of the material aid needed by the people of Gaza, equivalent to less than one-tenth of a single humanitarian truckload. Under normal circumstances, 300 aid trucks enter Gaza daily via the Egyptian border post.

Indeed, according to the American aid organization GHF, since May 27 it has provided an average of 2.7 million meals per day, amounting to approximately 845 tons daily, quantities completely unattainable by a flotilla of small vessels (12 to 16 meters long) manned by volunteers ill-prepared for a voyage of that duration and lacking adequate technical and logistical support; indeed, some of these vessels were forced to turn back or failed to depart from intermediate ports.

Those who have delved into the complex cost-benefit analysis have encountered this uncertain result, published online, which we summarize here.

When totaling the items on the operation’s list, the cost of the 50 vessels (including larger support craft suitable for that type of voyage) at approximately 5 million euros, fuel for the long Mediterranean crossing estimated at around 10 million euros, onboard provisions, port services, and the extensive list of other expedition necessities, the final figure approaches 25–30 million euros. Any vessels that did not sink were seized and dismantled; those still in good condition were refitted and given to local fishermen.

The organizers gave due attention to, and effectively handled, complex legal issues which we will not discuss here regarding ownership and vessel operators, as well as the critical matter of national flags for the larger vessels, diplomatic reprisals threatened by Israel, and maritime insurance for a voyage characterized by the various companies as involving “extremely high-risk factors.”

The complex bureaucratic machinery required for the operation to function demonstrates that the challenge posed by the Flotilla played out not only on the open sea or off the coast of Gaza, but also through an intense, grueling legal and insurance process, carried out primarily in departure ports such as Istanbul, Athens, and Palermo months before the vessels set sail, that relied heavily on the pro bono efforts of activists.

Faced with activities of such magnitude and significance, one must not be deterred by these issues and figures, the funding for which is believed to come from a constellation of diverse NGOs worldwide, including some from Qatar, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia, with a predominance of Turkish organizations. It is worth recalling that the Mavi Marmara was owned by the Turkish NGO Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).

The substantial funds required to organize all these activities also come from various types of donations:  Crowdfunding global, Grandi Donatori, international Islamic philanthropic foundations, and Palestinian communities abroad, groups the Israeli government accuses of having ties to Hamas terrorism. In Italy, for instance, Banca Etica has launched a crowdfunding initiative for Gaza.

All this points to a large, far-reaching organization enjoying the support of a substantial number of participants and supporters worldwide.

The GSF’s voyage came to an abrupt halt on October 1, 2025, in international waters off the coast of Gaza, when the vessels were subjected to a series of armed boarding operations by Israeli forces, lasting until October 3, that ultimately resulted in the capture of all the activists, none of whom had offered any resistance. They were subsequently transported to Israel, where they were subjected to all manner of abuse and violent beatings. Later distributed among various prisons and eventually deported, they returned in small groups and recounted the violent treatment they had endured. Some of those who suffered the most severe beatings were welcomed and hailed as heroes, displaying their injuries like medals.

In the spring of this year, a new GSF expedition was launched, with an initial group of boats departing from Barcelona on April 15 for Sicily; there, they were joined by other vessels bound for Gaza, bringing the total to 58 boats carrying food, medicines, solar-powered ovens, and school supplies. Additional vessels from Greece and Turkey were also scheduled to join this convoy.

This convoy was first attacked on April 29, 2026, by Israeli special forces in international waters off the coast of Crete, where 20 boats from the convoy were intercepted and 400 activists were arrested. The boats were diverted to the Israeli port of Ashdod. A second group of 23 boats that had set sail from Turkey was stopped between May 18 and 19 in international waters off the coast of Cyprus, following the same script that had already been tested in previous missions.

The unsuccessful outcome of the maritime expedition to Gaza did not prevent the departure from Tunisia, in May 2026, of a land-based humanitarian relief mission, the Global Sumud Convoy, headed for Gaza via Libya and Egypt, comprising a convoy of trucks and buses and 200 activists. This convoy was blocked by General Haftar’s militias while awaiting transit permission through Cyrenaica. Eleven of the activists were arrested and transferred to special detention facilities, where they began a hunger and thirst strike to protest the appalling conditions to which they were subjected. As of this writing, their pre-trial detention has been extended for a second time, until June 12. Some of the expelled foreign activists were subsequently beaten by the police in their home countries upon their return.

The potential scenarios ahead are uncertain, given that the Israeli government has no intention of easing tensions in the Strip, let alone reaching an agreement with the GSF, which is backed by an extensive international network providing all necessary support and shows no signs of stopping.

To date, there have been no casualties during the boardings, and according to accounts from those who have returned, rubber bullets were fired at both the men and the vessels. This highlights that Israel is adopting a hard line, though not an extreme one. At the moment, a compromise, allowing only a few vessels to reach Gaza to deliver aid, does not appear feasible. Given the dire situation facing the people of Gaza, such a solution would be entirely futile and merely symbolic; in essence, it would represent a defeat for both sides.

The harshest and most implausible solution would remain on the table: actual naval support from the warships of other states, with unimaginable consequences.

But this is, in fact, entirely unfeasible, because no state has the slightest interest in providing substantial military aid to the desperate people of the Strip, let alone defending the “flotillas” against assaults by the Israeli Navy. Even in waters designated as “international.”

All the world’s bourgeois states are essentially indifferent to the Palestinians, whether in Gaza, where an outright genocide is taking place, or in the West Bank, which is being invaded by ground troops supporting the “settlers” of “Greater Israel.”

The sordid lie of two states destined to coexist on a tiny patch of territory, as championed in the UN’s perennial lamentations, is fading as the Israeli Armed Forces press their advance, having even invaded Lebanon to expand Israel’s security buffer, all while the international community fails to lift a finger, limiting itself to generic condemnations of the invasion.

All the more reason why the absurd notion of a sort of ‘federation’ has vanished, a federation between a State coldly and ruthlessly pursuing an imperialist agenda , albeit a “local” one, fueled and aided primarily by the United States and countless global arms manufacturers, and a desperate mass of people seeking a form of redemption and a distant hope for a future through terrorism.

Taking stock of these “adventures” means highlighting, with a sense of bitterness, their futility. Without diminishing the courage of the many participants in this pointless voyage, young people who, driven by idealism, concluded that “doing something, anything at all, is better than standing by and watching” and thus engaged in a personally dangerous undertaking, it must be stated with firm determination that this petty-bourgeois ideology leads nowhere; at best, it achieves nothing, and at worst, it results in personal tragedies.

Young proletarians must not let themselves be beguiled by the call of those adventurous sirens; for only through an intense and widespread class struggle, under the leadership of the revolutionary communist party, can the problems of capitalist exploitation, which here has taken this form and produced the genocide in Gaza, be resolved. We must simply reaffirm, with strength and passion, that only revolution can offer hope to the tormented proletariat of Palestine.