Al-Samoud Convoy Resumes Journey Toward Gaza After Passport Checks Near Zliten, Libya

The Al-Samoud convoy resumed its journey toward Gaza after a pause near the city of Zliten in western Libya, with activists saying security forces completed passport checks in an area near Zliten about 140 kilometers west of Tripoli.

“The Global Sumud Land, which set off in parallel with the maritime flotilla, has been intercepted in Sirte, in the eastern part of the country, as they were negotiating the convoy's passage at a security checkpoint”

El País

The convoy, belonging to the global Al-Samoud Fleet, resumed after a halt lasting five and a half hours, after it had set out Friday afternoon from the city of Zawiya west of Tripoli and included more than 350 activists from 30 countries.

El País

The convoy carries 50 containers designated to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, including 30 humanitarian aid containers, 20 mobile housing units, and 5 ambulances, while the Al-Samoud Fleet’s by-sea attempt set off on Thursday with 54 ships from Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

On April 29, the Israeli occupation army carried out an illegal attack in international waters off the island of Crete targeting ships of the Al-Samoud fleet, and Israel intercepted 21 boats carrying around 175 activists on board while the remaining boats continued their journey toward Greek territorial waters.

In parallel, the 'Resilience' convoy also resumed its journey to break the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip after a stop of five and a half hours near Zliten, with activists saying security forces completed passport checks near Zliten about 140 kilometers west of Tripoli.

In eastern Libya, El País reported that Libyan authorities detained 10 members of the Global Sumud Land convoy carrying aid for Gaza, including Spanish Alicia Armesto Núñez, as they negotiated the convoy's passage at a security checkpoint near the city of Sirte.

El País said it was the second time the group had been blocked from moving, after being intercepted on May 18 also near Sirte, and that the terrestrial caravan of activists had approached the Sirte checkpoint to negotiate passage for almost two hours.

Shehab News

The Global Sumud Land statement told supporters, "If you are a citizen of one of these countries, call your Ministry of Foreign Affairs," asking what authorities were doing to protect citizens forming part of a humanitarian convoy in Libya.

El País also listed the other nine detainees as Polish citizen Laura Kwoczala, American Jenelle Jones, Argentines María Paula Giménez and Lucas Ezequiel Aguilera, Uruguayan Matías Álvarez Rodríguez, Portuguese Ana Margarida França Santana Baptista, Tunisian Ashraf Joya and Italians Domenico Centrone and Leonarda Alberizia.

The same report said the United States Department of State considers eastern Libya an area of extreme risk and warns that the region is characterized by deep instability, the presence of armed groups, high crime rates, risk of terrorism, kidnappings, and the constant threat of unexploded ordnance.

The Al-Samoud and 'Resilience' convoy efforts are framed by their organizers as attempts to break the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza, with both accounts describing passport checks near Zliten and a five and a half hour stop before resuming movement.

“Tripoli: The 'Resilience' convoy resumed its journey to break the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, after it paused for a period near the city of Zliten, located west of Libya's capital, Tripoli”

Al-Quds al-Arabi

The Al-Samoud Fleet’s by-sea attempt involved 54 ships from Marmaris, and the 'Resilience' Fleet’s by-sea attempt also involved 54 ships from the Turkish city of Marmaris on the Mediterranean in a renewed attempt to break the Israeli-imposed blockade on Gaza.

El País said the land convoy set out in parallel with the maritime flotilla in early April and that the activists consider that "genocide and the blockade of Gaza continue and the Palestinian people cannot wait for this bureaucratic absurdity to be resolved."

El País added that the group recalls the recent interception of 50 ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the brutal and illegal detention of 328 participants in international waters as they were heading to Gaza.

In the 'Resilience' account, the initiative is described as part of a series of attempts to break the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007, which it links to humanitarian deterioration and to the displacement of about 1.5 million Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip.