Israeli forces intercepted 50 vessels belonging to the Global Sumud Flotilla as they sailed from the Turkish port of Marmaris toward Gaza, with 428 people of various nationalities aboard, including two Polish citizens. A spokesman for the Polish section of the organization said on Friday that all Polish participants had left Israel safely.
Janina Ochojska, founder of Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), said the operation achieved its goal regardless of the outcome. "The action of the Global Sumud Flotilla succeeded, even though the convoy was intercepted, because people have started talking about Gaza again", she told Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Ochojska argued that Israel's prevention of humanitarian aid violated international law, and that symbolic gestures of solidarity remained essential even when they fell short of their practical aim.
"If this is anyone's defeat, it is Israel's — for blocking humanitarian aid and fearing that people arriving in Gaza would see what the population there is facing", she said.
She dismissed the notion that civil society was powerless in the absence of government action. "We cannot say that because the government does nothing, we can do nothing either", she said, adding: "I believe in the power of protest. It is fleeting, but it matters".
Drawing on her own history, Ochojska recalled being told in 1992 that a modest Polish convoy to besieged Sarajevo was too small to matter. "Even if it was 12 trucks, it did not save Sarajevo. But the aid reached a few people. Those 12 trucks helped someone. Then came more convoys, and more — and PAH is now Poland's largest humanitarian organization", she said.
She also invoked the philosophy of Holocaust survivor Marian Turski. "Indifference kills. My indifference toward Gaza contributes to the killing of people there — and so I try to always do something, even if it only means finding out and knowing", she said.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, organized by a coalition of pro-Palestinian movements, first sailed from Mediterranean ports in September 2025. The United States and Israel contend the flotilla is organized by the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Conference Abroad, which the Trump administration designated under sanctions in January 2026 as an entity acting on behalf of Hamas.
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Source: PAP