About 20 French ships have set sail from the port of the French city of Marseille to join a new international flotilla for the Gaza Strip, which is expected to include about 100 ships, Agence France-Presse reported.
The flotilla's goal is to break through the Israeli blockade and reach the Palestinian enclave.
“Gaza, Marseille is with you!“, chanted more than a thousand people who came to support the departure of the vessels, most of which were yachts.
This new international flotilla will set sail for Gaza around April 20 after a week-long stop in southern Italy. Before that, most of the ships of the new flotilla will join it from Barcelona on April 12.
In the fall of 2025, the first flotilla of about fifty ships, including politicians and activists such as the Swedish Greta Thunberg, was stopped by the Israeli navy, and the people on board were arrested and expelled from Israel.
The Gaza Strip, ruled by "Hamas", has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007. Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement accuse each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, 2025 after two years of war.