Fifty-four boats, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, left the southwestern Turkish town of Marmaris on Thursday for Gaza.

Numerous activists from 70 countries are participating in the flotilla. Among the Turkish activists are Sümeyra Akdeniz Ordu, board member of the flotilla, and Mahmut Arslan, head of the Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-İş), a major labor union.

The second Global Sumud Flotilla that launched from Spain on April 12 attempted to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by delivering aid.

Israel deported last Sunday two foreign activists seized from the flotilla, in what a rights group representing them described as a "punitive attack" on a civilian mission.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard the flotilla intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of Greece on April 30. The pair were seized and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released. The intervention by Israel disrupted the plans of the activists, who later regrouped in Marmaris, a popular tourist destination in the southwestern part of Türkiye close to the Greek islands.

Abu Keshek joined other activists at a news conference in Marmaris on Wednesday and vowed that they would resume their mission with "more than 500 brave people.” He said Israel was committing a "slow genocide” by starving people of Gaza.

"They are implementing a colonizing process to displace Palestinians,” he said.

"The struggle of Palestinians, however, continues because Palestinians are like olive trees and will not leave the soil. We are embarking on our voyage because we are inspired by people resisting (Israel) for 78 years,” he said.

The mission marks the second initiative by the Global Sumud Flotilla, following a previous attempt in September 2025 that ended with an Israeli interception in international waters and the detention of hundreds of international activists.

In October 2023, Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and destroyed about 90% of the enclave's infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at around $70 billion.

Israel has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, leaving about 1.5 million Palestinians out of roughly 2.4 million homeless after their homes were destroyed during the war.