Gaza Flotilla Ship Madleen Begins its Voyage to Gaza
Colonel Ann Wright
The Gaza Flotilla sailboat Madleen set off from Catania, Sicily, Italy on June 1, 2025 for a 7-day voyage to Gaza to break the 40-year illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and now to stop the 600 day genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Madleen and her 12-person crew and participants departed Catania, Sicily, Italy about 4pm Central European Summer Time on Sunday, June 1, 2025 following four very successful community events in Catania, each event having several hundred members of the local community attending.
The Madleen is named after Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman in 2014. The ship is a symbol of the unyielding spirit of Palestinian resilience and the growing global resistance to Israel’s use of collective punishment and deliberate starvation policies.
Her launch comes just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another Freedom Flotilla aid ship, in international waters off the coast of Malta—underscoring both the urgency and the danger of this mission to break the siege on Gaza.
One month ago, on May 1, 2025, the Israeli military bombed the Gaza flotilla ship named “Conscience” in international waters off the European country of Malta as the flotilla coalition was ready to board around 35 participants onto the ship. The bombing occurred hours following the flight of an Israeli military C-130 Hercules aircraft around Malta.
In international complicity of stopping the Conscience form departing Malta, the U.S. government no doubt put pressure on the small Pacific island of Palau which is dependent on U.S. funding through the Compact of Free Association to cancel the flag and certification of the Conscience which was done in the afternoon of May 1, only hours before the Israeli military bombed the Conscience.
Madleen is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition emphasizes that this is a peaceful act of civil resistance. All volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence. They are sailing unarmed, united by the shared belief that Palestinians deserve the same rights, freedom, and dignity as all people.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition calls on:
Governments to guarantee safe passage for Madleen and all humanitarian vessels;
Media outlets to report on this mission with accuracy and integrity;
People of conscience everywhere to reject silence and take action for Gaza.
Those onboard the Madleen are:
1. Mark Van Rennes (crew) The Netherlands
2. Reva Seifert Viard (crew) France
3. Pascal Maurieras (crew) France
4. Sergio Toribio (crew) Spain
5. Thiago Ávila (Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee) (Brazil)
6. Yasemin Acar (Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee) (Germany)
7. Rima Hassan (European Parliamentarian) France
8. Greta Thunberg (climate activist) Sweden
9. Yanis M’Hamdi (journalist) France
10. Suayb Ordu (engineer) Turkey
11. Omar Fayad (Al Jazeera reporter) France
12. Baptiste Andre (Doctor) France
Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a US diplomat for 16 years, but resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the US war on Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
I think this has to be the most courageous thing I have ever seen. Send this crew all your thoughts, prayers, healing powers, positive karmic vibes, and psychic protective energy because they are sailing into the mouth of the beast. Israel’s hell on earth. This ship is full of selfless, kind, and brave human beings with the biggest hearts the world will ever know so, of course, Israel will try to kill them and then blame them for their own deaths. May Israel finally fail. I make this wish with all the energy I have left inside of me.