Western Massachusetts native Torleif Stumo announces in a recording posted on Instagram that an all-volunteer humanitarian aid flotilla he and his brother, Adnaan, were a part of was intercepted by the Israeli Navy.
Photo credit: @tor_tilla2gaza on Instagram
Two young men with ties to Western Massachusetts were part of an all-volunteer humanitarian aid flotilla intercepted by the Israeli Navy in waters outside of Gaza early the morning of Oct. 2. A YouTube feed broadcasted from several of the boats in the flotilla showed the interception, which occurred approximately 70 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza.
According to an Oct. 2 online report by Reuters, among the flotilla participants detained during this interception was famed Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The estimated 40 boats and an additional 443 activists detained were being escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where they will be processed and ultimately deported. Among the detainees were 26 Americans from 12 states.
Sons of independent congressional candidate and Sheffield resident Nadia Milleron, the two Western Mass natives, Torleif and Adnaan, joined the initial 50-vessel Global Sumud Flotilla in Barcelona, Spain, with the hopes of establishing a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine to the besieged people of Gaza.
A prerecorded message posted on Toleif’s Instagram page @tor_tilla2gaza late in the evening on Oct. 1, Eastern Standard Time, announced he had been captured by Israeli forces.
Subsequent messages asked followers to contact U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren to pressure the U.S. government to petition Israel for their release. Contact information for the congressman and senators was provided in the post.
Torleif and Adnaan, ages 32 and 26, a trained ship’s engineer and a certified sailboat captain, respectively, were part of a force of 22,000 international volunteers, lawyers and organizers that pulled the Global Sumud Flotilla together in less than three months.
Photo credit: @adnaanimo in Instagram
According to the running Instagram account posted by Torleif during the journey across the Mediterranean, the young men joined the volunteer effort to bring food and medical supplies to besieged Palestinians in Gaza on or about Aug. 23. The vessels being employed to take aid across the Mediterranean were either volunteer boats or donated craft.
According to Reuters, the Global Sumud Flotilla was not the first effort to bring aid into Gaza, which has been under a blockade from outside aid for the past two years. None to date have been successful.
Milleron herself joined her sons in Barcelona in August to help outfit the boats for the trip across the Mediterranean.
“I helped inventory the boats. I took part in the nonviolent training,” Milleron shared, stressing that all members of the flotilla participated in specific training to ensure their reactions to any provocation during the journey would be non-violent.
Photo credit: @tor_tilla2gaza on Instagram.
She said that the trainers were aware the operation was being watched.
“The trainer was saying, ‘We know that Israeli intelligence is here in the training. We welcome you. We want you to know everything about our training to know we are non-violent,’” Milleron said. She added she saw a masked individual on a jet ski and drones checking out the boats and the preparations.
The flotilla left Barcelona on Sept. 3, stopping on the island of Minorca for more boat repairs, then continuing on to Tunisia to meet additional boats and volunteers. Torleif recorded on his Instagram page that the boats were bombed by quadcopters on two consecutive nights while at sea, one attack destroying the life jackets in the hold on a family’s boat, and another destroying the mast and main sail of another sailboat.
He noted that drones were a constant threat while on the open sea between ports, adding that the volunteers all donned life jackets when drones were spotted in the air around the boats.
After another delay for repairs, the flotilla left Tunisia on Sept. 11, with what Torleif recorded were “hundreds of people on the beach and on the port sending support.”
On Sept. 24, Torleif recorded another drone attack that exploded above the mast of one of the vessels.
The flotilla stopped again in Crete for supplies and repairs before continuing the journey on Sept. 27.
On Sept. 29, he recorded that the flotilla hoped to reach Gaza in three days’ time.
During the journey, the Italian Navy had sent a ship to help protect its people, but that ship withdrew when the flotilla reached the blockade waters. Reuters reported that Turkey and Spain also sent boats and drones in case their nationals required assistance. Reuters further noted that Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Italy and Colombia, with protests also called for in Greece, Ireland and Turkey.
