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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://popularresistance.org/attempts-at-sabotage-of-flotilla-ship-hours-before-sailing-to-gaza/">popularresistance.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Attempts At Sabotage Of Flotilla Ship \u2018Handala\u2019 Hours before Sailing To Gaza</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Colonel (ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance.</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">July 20, 2025</div>
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<h2>Urgent Call for Accountability and Safe Passage.</h2>
<p><strong>Seven U.S. Citizens on board the Gaza Flotilla ship Handala Heading to Gaza.</strong></p>
<img src="cid:ii_mdd72df90" alt="handala1.png" width="394" height="323"><br><p>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.</p>
<p>The Freedom Flotilla coalition stated in its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMVnItcKvhV/">Instagram</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Just hours before departure, the \u2018Handala\u2019 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.</p>
<p>We will not be intimidated. We sail for the children of Gaza\u2014against
siege, starvation, and slaughter. We sail to break Israel\u2019s illegal
blockade and deliver life-saving aid and hope.</p>
<p>We call on the world to demand accountability and ensure safe passage for this civilian mission.</p></blockquote>
<p><img src="https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-20-at-9.13.22%E2%80%AFAM-e1753042489875.png" alt="" width="339" height="394" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<p>Despite the two attempts at sabotage, the Gaza Freedom flotilla
coalition sailed its next ship to break the illegal Israeli blockade of
Gaza.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/">FOLLOW THE HANDALA USING THIS TRACKER</a>.</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<h3>U.S. Citizens on the Handala</h3>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/huwaida-arraf/">Huwaida Arraf</a> 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.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/braedon-peluso/">Braedon Peluso</a> 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.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/frank-romano/">Frank Romano</a> 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.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DMGeMv7ylvx/">Robert Suberi</a> 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.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/christian-smalls/">Chris Smalls</a> from New Jersey is an American labor organizer known for his role in leading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_worker_organization">Amazon worker organization</a> on Staten Island, New York He is a co-founder and the former president of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Labor_Union">Amazon Labor Union</a> (ALU) (2021\u201324).</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/jacob-berger/">Jacob Berger</a> 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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jacobbergeractor/">social media</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/waad-aal-musa-36863b161/">Waad Aal Musa</a> is an al Jazeera journalist, news producer and photographer, originally from Iraq, but now a U.S. citizen.</p>
<h3>Other participants on the Handala are:</h3>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/emma-fourreau/">Emma Fourreau</a> is a member of the European Parliament from France and also claims Sweden. She was a volunteer on the ship Sea Shepard.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/gabrielle-cathala/">Grabielle Cathala</a> is a member of the French Parliament who worked as a humanitarian worker in Haiti and Congo.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMD5U34AfXD/">Vigdis Bjorvand</a> is
a 70-year-old activist from Norway. A grandmother, says she never wants
her grandchild to say, \u201cGrandma, you didn\u2019t do anything.\u201d She was on
the Handala in 2023.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/category/participants/handala-participants-2025/">Antoinio La Piccirella</a> is a mariner from Italy with worldwide activist experience.</p>
<p>Sergio Toribio Sanchez is a maritime mariner from Spain. He was also on the flotilla ship Madleen last month and <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250709-spain-opens-war-crimes-probe-against-netanyahu-over-madleen-aid-ship-attack/">filed a lawsuit against the Israeli government</a> for involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the attack on the Madleen.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/ange-sahuquet/">Ange Sahuquet</a> is a maritime engineer from France who served on the activist boat Sea Shepard.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/santiago-gonzalez-vallejo-spain/">Santiago González Vallejo</a> is a Spanish activist with the flotilla coalition partner Rumbo a Gaza.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/tan-safi/">Tan Safi</a> from Australia has been a key part of the flotilla media team creating many Instagram posts for the various voyages since 2024.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/17/mohamed-bakkali/">Mohamed El Bakkali</a> is an al Jazeera journalist from Morocco.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/19/antonio-mazzeo-italy/">Antonio Mazzeo</a> is
an award-winning journalist from Italy. In 2020, he was awarded the
\u201cGolden Dove for Peace\u201d by the Archivio Disarmo in recognition \u201cfor
having interpreted journalism and writing for years as a mission to
defend human rights and denounce injustice.\u201d</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/robertmartinpal/">Robert Martin</a> is a member of Australian Boats to Gaza and is a social media influencer.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/15/justine-kempf/">Justine Kempf </a>is a nurse from France who has worked with Doctors Without Borders in the DRC and will be the medical person onboard.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/19/chloe-fiona-ludden/">Chloe Ludden</a> 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.</p>
<p><a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/07/18/hatem-aouini/">Hatem Aouini</a> is an longtime activist from Tunisia.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Monitor the progress of the Handala voyage <a href="https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/">here.</a></p>
<h3>Update on other Flotilla ships</h3>
<p>The ship <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/conscience-drone-strike-gaza-flotilla-aftermath/">\u201cConscience\u201d that was bombed by Israel</a> 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.</p>
<p>The unarmed, civilian ship <a href="https://peaceandplanetnews.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla-sailboat-madleen-intercepted-by-israelis/">\u201cMadleen\u201d</a> 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.</p>
<h3>We Will Not be Deterred by Sabotage Attempts</h3>
<p>As stated in our Instagram post: \u201cWe will not be intimidated. We sail
for the children of Gaza\u2014against siege, starvation, and slaughter. We
sail to break Israel\u2019s illegal blockade and deliver life-saving aid and
hope.</p>
<p>We call on the world to demand accountability and ensure safe passage for this civilian mission.\u201d</p>
<p><strong>Ann Wright</strong> 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.</p>
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