The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00 pm local time, according to a journalist of the French press agency AFP, carrying about fifteen activists.

Several dozen people, some holding Palestinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat’s departure with cries of “Free Palestine”.

The former Norwegian trawler, loaded with medical supplies, food, children’s equipment and medicine, will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres, in the hope of reaching Gaza’s coast. Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a gas station destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 12, 2025.