Reportage
The Sumud toward the red zone, though the Italians have dropped off
It has been a month that felt like a year. Even though the Italian navy is abandoning the Sumud, the Spanish and Turkish escorts remain.
“Whatever happens, we’ve already won. If they intercept us, we’ll get off these fucking boats. And if not, we’ll get to Gaza!” Hannah laughs, then catches herself. “Actually, I love this boat. Sorry, Hio.” She kisses her hand, then touches the wooden deck of the Hio, the sailboat that has carried this il manifesto reporter across the Mediterranean throughout September.
It has been a month that felt like a year. The crew is chatting among themselves, recalling the main stages of the journey: the departure from Barcelona, where thousands of people formed a corridor for the participants heading to the boats, hailing them as heroes; then the stop in Menorca to regroup after a third of the fleet suffered damage during a stormy first night.
Then there was Tunis and the first arson attacks; Bizerte and the endless border checks. Then came the major drone assault last Tuesday, the brief stop in Crete, and the departure for Gaza, to which we are now very close. We hear it on the radio from the Italian Navy frigate Alpino: “To all vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla. We inform you that you are 190 nautical miles from Gaza.”
The boats received the message from the Italian military vessel on channel 16, the maritime emergency channel, shortly after 6 p.m. “We inform you that at this course and speed, at 02:00 hours tomorrow, October 1st, you will be 150 nautical miles from Gaza. The vessel Alpino will not cross this limit. From now until the 150-mile line, the Alpino will be able to retrieve any personnel who wish to transfer on board.”
On the Italian participants’ chat group, someone snaps: “So Italy is recognizing 150 miles as Israeli territorial waters, excellent.” As far as I am aware, no one accepted this latest invitation to abandon the mission.
On the Hio, the message goes almost unnoticed. The atmosphere is festive because there are two new passengers on board: Heliza and Hazwani Helmi, the Malaysian singing and acting duo known as the Helmi sisters. Malaysia has sent a very large delegation, one of the few with official government support and funding. From the sisters’ modest manner, no one would guess they are celebrities with millions of social media followers. They are “castaways” from the Johnny M, the motorboat that began sinking at dawn on Monday and required a rescue operation by the NGO Emergency’s ship, Life Support.
The cause of the sinking has not yet been elucidated, but the Helmi sisters saw it as an attack, not an accident. “It was scary,” Heliza recalls. “At four in the morning, the radio frequencies were jammed with a song that said, ‘Many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, don’t ask me why.’ Right after that, we started to sink.”
The Helmi sisters are getting to know their new crew. “We’ve only known each other for ten minutes, but it feels like ten years,” says Hazwani. Time passes differently on the flotilla. The sisters then perform one of their songs for us, singing the chorus with beautiful voices and broad smiles.
Amid the chatter, we listen in on the day’s online meetings. The first is offering advice on how to psychologically handle a possible detention in Israel and interrogations. The second is about navigation plans. There are countless technical details and questions, but the bottom line is clear: the flotilla will continue sailing until it is stopped by force. A fleet-wide drill on how to handle a boarding is scheduled for 4 a.m.
Even though the Italian navy is abandoning the Sumud, the Spanish and Turkish escorts remain. So, it’s possible that on Monday night the fleet will sail on undisturbed. After that, according to Israeli media reports, the army is expected to board the flotilla, gather all the crews onto a single large military vessel, and transport them to Israel for deportation as illegal immigrants.
The start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish religious holiday, could cause delays in the deportation process. Hannah, at the helm of the Hio, is thinking only of what she’ll do when she gets back to her native Wales: “A nice pint of beer. Maybe two. Maybe even three.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/la-sumud-verso-la-zona-rossa-la-fregata-italiana-se-ne-va on 2025-10-01