[News] Attempts At Sabotage Of Flotilla Ship ‘Handala’ Hours before Sailing To Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

popularresistance.org
<https://popularresistance.org/attempts-at-sabotage-of-flotilla-ship-hours-before-sailing-to-gaza/>
Attempts At Sabotage Of Flotilla Ship ‘Handala’ Hours before Sailing To Gaza
By Colonel (ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance.
July 20, 2025
------------------------------
Urgent Call for Accountability and Safe Passage.

*Seven U.S. Citizens on board the Gaza Flotilla ship Handala Heading to
Gaza.*
[image: handala1.png]

Mere hours before the Gaza flotilla ship, Handala, was to sail with 21
participants on board, in the Italian port of Gallipoli, two attempts to
sabotage the ship were made.

The Freedom Flotilla coalition stated in its Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/p/DMVnItcKvhV/>:

Just hours before departure, the ‘Handala’ faced two alarming incidents: a
rope wrapped around the propeller and a delivery labeled as water that
contained a corrosive chemical, injuring crew members. These may be
calculated attempts to harm us and stop our mission.

We will not be intimidated. We sail for the children of Gaza—against siege,
starvation, and slaughter. We sail to break Israel’s illegal blockade and
deliver life-saving aid and hope.

We call on the world to demand accountability and ensure safe passage for
this civilian mission.

Despite the two attempts at sabotage, the Gaza Freedom flotilla coalition
sailed its next ship to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The Handala departed for Gaza on July 20, 2025 two hours later than its
scheduled departure from the Italian port of Gallipoli after stops in
Augusta and Siracusa in Sicily. The journey to Gaza may take around 7 days.
FOLLOW THE HANDALA USING THIS TRACKER
<https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/>.

Twenty-one persons from 10 countries are onboard the Handala, including
seven U.S. citizens, representing the hundreds of millions of Americans who
are strongly opposed to the U.S. complicity in the Israeli genocide of
Palestinians in Gaza.

The following nationalities are represented on the Handala: USA 7, France
4, Australia 2, Italy 2, Spain 2, Norway 1, Morocco 1, Tunisia 1, UK 1;
Israel -2 US citizens have dual citizenship with Israel.

U.S. Citizens on the Handala

Huwaida Arraf <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/huwaida-arraf/> from
Detroit, Michigan is a Palestinian who has citizenship in both the U.S. and
Israel.  She was on several of the small boats that actually got into Gaza
in 2008.  She was also on the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla on the boat named
Challenger One.  She is a human rights lawyer. She is a steering committee
member of the Gaza Flotilla coalition and U.S. Boats to Gaza.

Braedon Peluso <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/braedon-peluso/> from
New York is a mariner with over a decade of experience at sea, much of it
dedicated to activism in marine conservation and sea rescue organizations.
In 2024, he was part of the Handala mission.

Frank Romano <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/frank-romano/> is a
U.S.-French citizen from New York City and Paris. He is a human rights
lawyer and filmmaker. He has been in the West Bank many times.

Robert Suberi <https://www.instagram.com/p/DMGeMv7ylvx/> is a U.S.-Israeli
citizen from St. Louis, Missouri.  He has been a crew member of Handala
during two sailings in Northern Europe. He has done accompany work in the
West Bank.

Chris Smalls <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/christian-smalls/> from
New Jersey is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading Amazon
worker organization
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_worker_organization> on Staten
Island, New York He is a co-founder and the former president of the Amazon
Labor Union <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Labor_Union> (ALU)
(2021–24).

Jacob Berger <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/jacob-berger/> is a
Jewish-American from Los Angeles. He is an actor and has done humanitarian
work for Palestinians who have arrived in Cairo. He is active on social
media <https://www.instagram.com/jacobbergeractor/>.

Waad Aal Musa <https://www.linkedin.com/in/waad-aal-musa-36863b161/> is an
al Jazeera journalist, news producer and photographer, originally from
Iraq, but now a U.S. citizen.
Other participants on the Handala are:

Emma Fourreau <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/emma-fourreau/> is a
member of the European Parliament from France and also claims Sweden. She
was a volunteer on the ship Sea Shepard.

Grabielle Cathala
<https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/gabrielle-cathala/> is a member of
the French Parliament who worked as a humanitarian worker in Haiti and
Congo.

Vigdis Bjorvand <https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMD5U34AfXD/> is a
70-year-old activist from Norway. A grandmother, says she never wants her
grandchild to say, “Grandma, you didn’t do anything.” She was on the
Handala in 2023.

Antoinio La Piccirella
<https://freedomflotilla.org/category/participants/handala-participants-2025/>
is
a mariner from Italy with worldwide activist experience.

Sergio Toribio Sanchez is a maritime mariner from Spain.  He was also on
the flotilla ship Madleen last month and filed a lawsuit against the
Israeli government
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250709-spain-opens-war-crimes-probe-against-netanyahu-over-madleen-aid-ship-attack/>
for
involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the attack
on the Madleen.

Ange Sahuquet <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/ange-sahuquet/> is a
maritime engineer from France who served on the activist boat Sea Shepard.

Santiago González Vallejo
<https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/santiago-gonzalez-vallejo-spain/> is
a Spanish activist with the flotilla coalition partner Rumbo a Gaza.

Tan Safi <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/tan-safi/> from Australia
has been a key part of the flotilla media team creating many Instagram
posts for the various voyages since 2024.

Mohamed El Bakkali <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/mohamed-bakkali/> is
an al Jazeera journalist from Morocco.

Antonio Mazzeo
<https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/19/antonio-mazzeo-italy/> is an
award-winning journalist from Italy.   In 2020, he was awarded the “Golden
Dove for Peace” by the Archivio Disarmo in recognition “for having
interpreted journalism and writing for years as a mission to defend human
rights and denounce injustice.”

Robert Martin <https://www.instagram.com/robertmartinpal/> is a member of
Australian Boats to Gaza and is a social media influencer.

Justine Kempf <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/justine-kempf/>is a
nurse from France who has worked with Doctors Without Borders in the DRC
and will be the medical person onboard.

Chloe Ludden <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/19/chloe-fiona-ludden/>
recently
resigned her position working with the United Nations in New York because
of the Israeli genocide of Gaza and is from the UK and France.

Hatem Aouini <https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/hatem-aouini/> is an
longtime activist from Tunisia.

The ship has been in the Gaza flotilla fleet since 2023 and made two
Northern European educational community voyages before arriving in the
Mediterranean in 2025.

Monitor the progress of the Handala voyage here.
<https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/>
Update on other Flotilla ships

The ship “Conscience” that was bombed by Israel
<https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/conscience-drone-strike-gaza-flotilla-aftermath/>
in
international waters off Malta in May 2025 is in Turkey. The international
maritime community has still not investigated the bombing of a civilian
ship in international waters.

The unarmed, civilian ship “Madleen”
<https://peaceandplanetnews.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla-sailboat-madleen-intercepted-by-israelis/>
that
was stolen from the Gaza Freedom flotilla 110 nautical miles off Gaza in
international waters is illegally seized and remains in Israel. The
participants who were kidnapped, arrested and taken against their will to
Israel are all home after having been imprisoned in Israel and deported.
We Will Not be Deterred by Sabotage Attempts

As stated in our Instagram post: “We will not be intimidated. We sail for
the children of Gaza—against siege, starvation, and slaughter. We sail to
break Israel’s illegal blockade and deliver life-saving aid and hope.

We call on the world to demand accountability and ensure safe passage for
this civilian mission.”

*Ann Wright* is a retired US Army Colonel and a former US diplomat who
resigned in 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq.  She is a member of
US Boats to Gaza and is on the Steering Committee of the Gaza Flotilla
coalition. She was in Gaza 10 times between 2009 and 2014 and was on two
flotilla boats that were seized in international waters in 2010 and 2016.
She was imprisoned and deported also.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250721/5adc43cd/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: handala1.png
Type: image/png
Size: 556564 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250721/5adc43cd/attachment-0001.png>