The Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla stalled in Tunisian ports for a week. It arrived in Tunisia on September 7 after crossing from Spain and was expected to keep sailing toward Gaza.
However, the flotilla activists chose to stay near Tunis at the marina of Sidi Bou Said. The activists then claimed two of their vessels had been hit by drones.
Last Thursday, a number of vessels in the flotilla left Sidi Bou Said and headed north toward the Tunisian marina in Bizerte. The flotilla was seeking to avoid high winds off the coast, according to reports.
It was not clear why traveling to Bizerte, and thus backtracking, would help them avoid the wind, because the winds in Bizerte were the same as in Tunis and Sidi Bou Said. Nevertheless, the flotilla spent September 12 and 13 in Bizerte.
Reports online suggested the flotilla had actually left Bizerte on September 13.
“The organizers of a flotilla bound for Gaza from North Africa announced that the boat was ready to set sail to the besieged Palestinian enclave on Saturday from Tunisia,” The New Arab English-language news site reported. “The Global Sumud Flotilla, or Maghreb Resilience Flotilla, is attempting to break Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip, where a genocidal Israeli war has continued for nearly two years, and a block on aid has resulted in the starvation deaths of hundreds.”
Two vessels from the flotilla would remain behind because they were not judged to be seaworthy for the trip, the report said.
Several vessels left the flotilla in Spain during the first foray before September 1, when high winds forced them back to port.
The flotilla has spent more time at anchor than sailing. It spent September 3 and 4 at Minora off the coast of Spain. Then it spent September 7-13 in Tunisia.
The vessels have only been sailing for about five days out of the last 14.
The reports on September 13 suggesting that the boats had left Bizerte were not confirmed by vessel-tracking, open-source sites. Instead, Vessel Finder shows that six of the vessels that are known to be part of the 20 that reached Tunisia were still anchored at the Bizerta marina’s main pier.
More boats join the flotilla
Other boats are joining the flotilla, according to reports.
“A group of 18 boats from the flotilla’s Italian fleet also set sail on Saturday from Sicily’s Augusta Port after a week of preparations,” Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, a state-run news agency, reported.
The port of Augusta is north of Syracuse. Unlike with the vessels that are part of the squadron that left Barcelona on September 1, the contingent from Italy does not appear to have vessels that have tracking data.
This is because most of them are sailboats, whereas the Spanish squadron consisted of a number of pleasure craft that are more than 20 meters long. Nevertheless, video from the Italian squadron shows the names of several of the sailing vessels.
The theory is that the vessels leaving from Sicily will meet up with the vessels that are leaving Tunisia. However, it was unclear when the flotilla would leave Bizerte.
It is about 260 nautical miles from Tunisia to Malta, which is south of Sicily. However, a previous flotilla had trouble off Malta in May, and it may not want to stop in the same place again.
Either way, with two squadrons now seeking to meet somewhere between Tunisia and Gaza, the flotilla activists have their sailing cut out for them.