London – The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) urges governments and human rights institutions around the world to take urgent and effective measures to guarantee the protection of the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, and to enable it to complete its vital humanitarian mission of breaking the blockade and delivering life-saving aid to civilians.

The need to lift the suffocating blockade on Gaza has never been more urgent, in light of the grave and systematic escalation carried out daily by Israeli occupation forces, including the wide-scale incursion launched this morning that has once again displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the open.

Since its preparations began, the flotilla has faced numerous obstacles and obstructions, ranging from political pressure exerted on states to prevent its departure, to repeated attacks aimed at undermining its humanitarian mission, including reports of it being targeted with incendiary drones in an attempt to halt its progress. Such efforts to derail this initiative constitute a flagrant violation of international law and complicity in the collective punishment and genocidal practices perpetrated by the occupying power against the people of Gaza.

The launch of this flotilla—carrying international human rights activists and vital relief supplies—comes at a time when Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe has reached unprecedented levels. The blockade has caused the collapse of the health system, severe shortages of food, medicine, and clean drinking water, leaving more than two million Palestinians in immediate danger.

The mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla is not simply a relief initiative, but a global cry of conscience against the crime of collective punishment inflicted on Gaza’s civilian population. Such practices are a grave breach of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits the collective punishment of protected populations.

At its core, the Global Sumud Flotilla is an act of peaceful humanitarian solidarity and a form of civilian action that must be protected and facilitated, not obstructed. Its fundamental purpose is to deliver essential humanitarian assistance to a protected civilian population, a right guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. Any attempt to obstruct the flotilla or endanger it is not only a violation of the right to freedom of navigation in international waters, but also a direct assault on legally protected humanitarian action and on the right of besieged civilians to receive life-saving assistance.

Accordingly, the Palestinian Return Centre calls for:

Enabling the Global Sumud Flotilla to carry out its mission is a true test of the international community’s seriousness in upholding international humanitarian law and in ending the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Allowing this peaceful mission to succeed would be a victory for the values of justice, human dignity, and humanity itself.