Twelve people including the captain were on board the 'Kate', the latest ship attempting to deliver aid.

Bristol, England – A ship sailed from southern England as part of a fleet effort to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Supporters on Sunday gathered at Hannover Quay in Bristol, a city represented by the Green Party and known for its progressive spirit, to send off the “Kate”, a ship carrying Freedom Flotilla activists on board.

Among those who said goodbye to the 12 activists were Swee Ang, a doctor and founder of Medical Aid for Palestine; Welsh nurse Leigh Evans, who was seen in footage shared widely online, kneeling before Egyptian soldiers in June 2025, begging to be allowed to cross and send aid to Gaza and David Miller, a professor who recently won a legal battle against the University of Bristol for his anti-Zionist views.

Fiacc O Brolchain, an Irish sailor and ship captain detained by Israeli forces earlier this year on a previous mission, said his hearing aids were confiscated during questioning. He said he kept repeating to the Israeli soldiers, "I can't hear you; you took my hearing aid."

Since 2010, Israel has intercepted or attacked every fleet that tried to penetrate the blockade of Gaza, including in international waters.

Frank Romano, a member of the Freedom Fleet Coalition and international lawyer representing Palestinian cases before the International Court of Justice, said that since October 2023, Israeli forces have intercepted and detained more than 75 solidarity ships and boats. He has made legal efforts to recover them, but has only succeeded in retrieving two ships.

Romano himself owned the “Handala”, a ship named after a character created by the late Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali, which was intercepted and detained in July 2025.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, which Romano said has so far cost $24 million and consists of a number of ships in different waves, launched its first mission last year and a much larger mission in April.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined the movement and was one of the flotilla passengers detained by Israel when their ship, the Alma, was intercepted in October. He is among those who allege physical and psychological abuse while detained. Israel denies the accusations.

Colm Byrne, an Irish activist returning to sailing after participating in previous flotilla efforts, said that in April, he was more than 1,000 km (620 miles) from Gaza when Israeli forces intercepted him. He said members of the fleet were kicked, beaten and forced into painful and humiliating positions. He had a shoulder injury, he said.

Activists were forced to spend four hours on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs before being transferred to prison, where they were forced to walk with their heads lowered or face the threat of being slapped, Byrne said.

But he stressed that although he felt humiliated, the abuse he experienced was not comparable to the scale of abuse experienced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.