New Freedom Flotilla heads for Gaza as massacres increase.

Written by: Nick G. on 22 July 2025

On July 20, two events, one showing the best of humanity, and one showing the worst, took place.

At the southern Italian port of Gallipoli, the latest Freedom Flotilla vessel, the Handala, departed for Gaza with aid mainly for the children who are being killed, traumatised and wounded by the sadistic butchers of the Israel Occupation Forces.

The vessel is named after the Palestinian cartoon figure Handala, a barefoot refugee child who turned his back on injustice and vowed not to turn around until Palestine is free.

Handala is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a grassroots international network that has been sailing against the blockade since 2010.

On board the Handala are 20 volunteers including Australians Robert Martin and Tan Safi, Tunisian Hatem Laouini, ICOR Deputy Coordinator, and 77-year old US-born Palestinian Jew Bob Suberi.

These incredibly brave and committed people, carrying medicines, baby formula and stuffed toys, know what they are sailing into – the jaws of the Zionist beast.

Just hours before launching, Handala was the target of two deeply alarming incidents that appear to be deliberate sabotage intended to obstruct their mission and harm their crew.

On the night of July 19 or early morning July 20, a rope was discovered tightly wound around the boat’s propeller. This could not have occurred through normal use or by accident. It was a direct threat to the safety of the vessel and its ability to sail.

Even more dangerous, on the morning of July 20, the truck sent to deliver fresh water to the boat for washing and cooking on the journey, carried not water, but sulphuric acid. It splashed on a crew member’s leg, causing chemical burns. Another crew member who smelled the substance and opened the container sustained burns to his hand.

Flotilla members have video footage of the individuals who delivered this dangerous substance and have called for an immediate investigation and full accountability for these acts.

As the Handala was preparing to depart, one of the worst days of the deliberate shooting of starving Palestinians at the handful of food distribution centres controlled by the Zionists occurred. 

Eighty people were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, and four more were killed near another aid site in Khan Yunis, also in the south.

The aid distribution points are like cheese on a mousetrap, drawing in the starving humanity who are then routinely killed by Occupation Force soldiers. More than ninety in one day, (and close to 900 in total) – all unarmed and civilians, and a further 150 wounded and sent to barely functioning hospitals, represents one of the worst displays of fascist and racist violence imposed on the innocent.

We won’t get much coverage of the Handala in the pro-Zionist mass media, but its progress can be followed here: Freedom Flotilla.

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