A Gaza-bound activist land convoy was dissolved in Libya on Thursday, after it was denied entry into the eastern part of the country – controlled by the Government of National Stability – and 10 of its activists were arrested, according to statements by the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) and by the GNS’ Foreign Ministry.
The Global Sumud Land Convoy, launched to complement the failed Gaza flotilla blockade run, said in a press release that it had been forced to conclude its journey across northern Africa to Gaza due to bureaucratic obfuscation, violence, and the detention of activists.
On Monday night, the day after the 10 activists were arrested, the GSF claimed that the 200 participants camped several kilometers from the Sirte crossing were encircled by unmarked vehicles. Members of the convoy alleged that they were physically assaulted and then forced to evacuate.
The activists were arrested last week on Sunday, according to GSF, after traveling to a Sirte checkpoint to negotiate with GNS authorities.
The GNS Foreign Ministry said in a Monday missive that the activists were arrested en route to Gaza, having failed to complete the legal procedures in order to obtain entry permits. The authorities assured that the detainees were being given care in accordance with humanitarian principles.
The GNS body said that while it supported the Palestinian cause, the border crossings shared by Libya and Egypt were restricted to citizens of those states.
A single strategy operating on multiple fronts simultaneously
GSF called for the release of its activists and for the intervention of their countries of origin: Spain, Poland, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Tunisia, and the United States.
The 30 vehicles, including 20 mobile homes and seven ambulances, set out from Zalitan on May 16, announcing that they had stopped outside Sirte on May 17.
GSF said that, on May 19, they had attempted to negotiate with the GNS, offering to give the humanitarian aid they had been transporting to the Libyan Red Crescent. The latter was meant to deliver the aid, ostensibly with the presence of a limited number of activists. The 10-person delegation had set out only after no response had been received from authorities.
“The land and sea missions are not parallel efforts that happened to coincide. They are a single strategy operating on multiple fronts simultaneously. We continue because we must,” GSF said in a Thursday statement. “We explore every pathway available to confront the siege and genocide because inaction is complicity and complicity has a cost, and that cost is too high.
“The flotilla continues. Land actions continue. Legal actions continue. Solidarity continues. Until the siege is broken and every person is free.”
The 54-vessel flotilla was intercepted by Israeli naval forces on May 18 and 19, and all participants have since been deported from Israel.
Similar to the land convoy, the flotilla sought to challenge the Egyptian and Israeli blockades of the Gaza Strip.
The previous land convoy in June was also stopped at Sirte, where it was later disbanded after Libyan forces refused to let it pass.