The Madleen ship, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), is en route towards Gaza carrying humanitarian aid and human rights activists protesting against Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza.

The vessel has set sail in response to Israel’s total aid blockade of the Palestinian enclave since March 2, which has resulted in the deaths of dozens of children due to starvation. More than 90 percent of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are facing acute food shortages, according to aid groups.

The Madleen, named after Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman, departed Catania, Sicily on June 1, just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another Freedom Flotilla aid ship, off the coast of Malta.

The 2,000km (1,250-mile) journey is expected to take seven days, provided there are no disruptions.

The ship’s location is being monitored live by Forensic Architecture through its onboard tracking system. The latest location as of June 3, at 15:00 GMT was some 600km (375 miles) from Sicily.

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Who is onboard?

There are 12 activists onboard the Madleen:

• Greta Thunberg – Swedish climate activist
• Rima Hassan – French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament
• Yasemin Acar – Germany
• Baptiste Andre – France
• Thiago Avila – Brazil
• Omar Faiad – France
• Pascal Maurieras – France
• Yanis Mhamdi – France
• Suayb Ordu – Turkiye
• Sergio Toribio – Spain
• Marco van Rennes – the Netherlands
• Reva Viard – France

We are doing this because no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.

by – Greta Thunberg

The FFC has emphasised that all volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence and are sailing unarmed in a peaceful act of civil resistance against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

What happened to previous flotillas?

Last month, another ship carrying aid to Gaza was hit by drones in international waters off Malta. The ship had been seeking to deliver aid following Israel’s genocidal blockade of the besieged enclave.

The FFC told Al Jazeera that the attack on the Conscience at 12:23pm local time (10:23 GMT) on May 2 blew a hole in the vessel and set the engine ablaze.

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Fifteen years ago, Israeli commandos carried out a deadly attack on Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in an aid flotilla carrying Turkish activists.

The so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla was carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid and had set out from Istanbul in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Nine humanitarian volunteers were killed on May 31, 2010.

Gaza has been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade since 2007.

What aid is the ship carrying?

According to a press release from the FFC, the Madleen is carrying supplies urgently needed by people in Gaza, including medical supplies, flour, rice, baby formula, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, crutches and children’s prosthetics.

Gaza starvation

One in five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is facing starvation because of Israel’s three-month-long total blockade of the Strip.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, 1.95 million people – 93 percent of the enclave’s population – are facing acute food shortages.

The IPC says Israel’s continued blockade “would likely result in further mass displacement within and across governorates”, as items essential for people’s survival will be depleted.

Despite an Israeli-led and US-backed aid distribution organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation being set up last month to deliver aid into Gaza, its new distribution hub disintegrated into chaos within hours of opening on May 27 and has been marred with even more controversy following deadly shootings at aid distribution sites.

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Israel has been accused of luring Palestinians to aid centres and killing more than 100 of them in the past eight days.

Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since it launched its devastating offensive on October 7, 2023.