Activists from Tunisia organize a bus caravan: The convoy, which is not bringing supplies and is described by civil society organizations as a “symbolic act,” intends to travel up to the Rafah border crossing, which has been mainly closed since last year.
To “break the siege” on the Palestinian enclave, a group of buses and private vehicles left Tunisia’s capital on Monday for Gaza, according to activists.
Activists, attorneys, and medical experts from North Africa are part of the overland endeavour, which was initially planned separately but was accelerated to align with the well-known maritime flotilla that the Israeli Navy captured on Monday.
Before arriving at Rafah, the border crossing with Egypt that has been mainly closed since Israel’s forces seized over the Gaza side in May 2024, it intends to travel through Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
The convoy’s organizing civil society organizations in Tunisia stated that their goal is to call for “the immediate lifting of the unjust siege on the Strip.” They claimed that the Arab states have not done enough to bring an end to Israel and Hamas’ 20-month conflict.
The October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault of southern Israel was the catalyst for the conflict.
Terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251; there are currently 55 captives in Gaza, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
The organizers said that rather than delivering goods to Gaza, their goal was to perform a “symbolic act” by lifting the barrier that Israel had imposed on the region following the Hamas invasion and massacre.
Israel began permitting some basic aid to enter Gaza last month after a two-and-a-half-month blockade that was intended to pressure Hamas into releasing the hostages and ceding power. Meanwhile, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organization supported by the US and Israel, started distributing aid independently from three locations.
However, until the siege is lifted and Israel stops its military offensive, experts have warned of hunger in the region, which is home to over 2 million people.
Although earlier assessments were The convoy began as the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. This humanitarian vessel sailed from Sicily earlier this month but was hauled into Ashdod harbor when Israeli soldiers intercepted it after repeatedly warning it not to approach Gaza.
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, was among several on board who were arrested before being deported.
In Tunisia and Algeria, where it started Sunday, the overland convoy attracted a lot of attention, with some protesters chanting in favor of the Gazan people and waving Palestinian flags.
“You are not alone,” this convoy tells our people in Gaza directly. We sympathize with your struggle. One of the Algerian organizers of the caravan, Yahia Sarri, posted on social media.
Doctors are part of the “Soumoud” convoy, which means “steadfastness” in Arabic, and it is expected to reach Rafah “by the end of the week,” activist Jawaher Channa told AFP.
Although Cairo has not yet issued passage permissions, it is scheduled to travel through Egypt and Libya, she continued.
According to Channa, the spokesperson for the Tunisian Coordination of Joint Action for Palestine, the organization behind the caravan, “we are about a thousand people and we will have more join us along the way.”
“We will see what happens when we get to Egypt, but we haven’t been granted permission to cross its borders yet,” she stated”
Despite recent fatal battles in Libya, which is still divided between two regimes, Channa said the caravan would not encounter any problems transiting the nation, “whose people have historically supported the Palestinian cause.”
The activists from North Africa do not anticipate that their convoy will be permitted entry into Gaza. In any case, it sends “a message of challenge and will,” according to Palestinian activist Saher al-Masri, who lives in Tunis.
