The GSF is a global grassroots initiative and the largest mission yet to challenge Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza, in place since 2007, as the enclave enters its third year of Israel's genocidal war and ninth month under an intensified land, sea, and air siege.
Much of the anger is fuelled by the fact that the flotilla carries not only aid but also around 500 prominent activists from 44 nations, among them politicians, academics, journalists, doctors, and campaigners from the very countries now witnessing mass demonstrations.
Protestors denounced the raid as piracy in international waters and vowed solidarity with those detained at sea, as the outpouring of anger quickly spilled into train stations, embassies, ministries, and central squares acoss Europe.
The GSF reported that Israeli naval forces attacked nine of its vessels and cut communications on Wednesday evening, while others remain at sea continuing towards Gaza.
The solidarity demonstrations began in Italy.
In Naples, protestors stormed the central train station and occupied its tracks. Rome’s Termini and Turin’s Porta Nuova were similarly disrupted, with crowds chanting for Gaza, denouncing government complicity, and breaking into the workers’ famous anti-fascist anthem, Bella Ciao.
Large crowds also filled Milan, Bologna, Genoa, Palermo, Florence and other cities, chanting “Meloni assassina” (Meloni is a killer), in reference to Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, a direct accusation of the right-wing PM’s complicity in the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The anger was sharpened by remarks from Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who told RAI television that his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar had assured him the flotilla boarding would be non-violent.
“The boarding was planned … so that there would be no violent actions on the part of the Tel Aviv armed forces, and this has been assured to me,” Tajani said, adding that Italian diplomats in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem had been instructed to assist nationals expected to be taken to Ashdod before expulsion.
On the streets, protesters dismissed the reassurances as hollow. Italy’s largest trade union, the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), announced a nationwide strike for Friday, 3 October, in direct response to the flotilla’s seizure.
In Athens, protesters gathered outside the Foreign Ministry just minutes after Israel’s interception.
It followed an earlier strike in which over ten thousand Greek workers and students had already taken to the streets, halting trains, ferries, and taxis while carrying Palestinian flags and denouncing both new labour laws and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
In tandem, Berlin saw one of the most disruptive protests, as hundreds occupied the city’s central train station.
Demonstrators blocked platforms and concourses, halting services and covering the glass structure with Palestinian flags. “Palestine will be free… Israel will never be”, they chanted, turning one of Europe’s busiest transport hubs into a sit-in in solidarity with the GSF.
In Brussels, demonstrators filled Bourse Square before marching on the Foreign Ministry, while in Geneva crowds flooded the streets, demanding an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and the immediate release of the flotilla’s crew and activists.
Meanwhile, in Barcelona, hundreds rallied outside the Israeli consulate, waving Palestinian flags and denouncing the assault on the convoy. The protest escalated when demonstrators tried to advance on the heavily guarded building, and police units charged.
Crowds responded by blocking the Ronda del Mig highway in both directions, keeping it shut as Palestinian flags and flotilla banners waved from the overpasses.
Organizers have already called for another mobilization on Thursday, 2 October, in Barcelona’s Carbonera Square to demand the immediate release of detainees and a boycott of Israel.
In Paris, thousands have occupied Place de la République, demanding the immediate release of the flotilla crews and activists and waving Palestinian flags and chanting for Gaza.
Across the Bosphorus, thousands rallied outside the US Embassy in Ankara, accusing Washington of complicity in genocide, while crowds in Istanbul massed at the Israeli consulate to denounce the assault on the GSF.
Beyond the big cities, smaller towns and villages saw spontaneous gatherings, led mostly by women, where people held Qurans aloft and prayed for the safety of the flotilla participants.
In Tunisia, crowds filled Habib Bourguiba Street in downtown Tunis, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Resistance, resistance, no peace, no compromise”.
Others addressed Yemen directly in their calls: “Oh Yemen, no ships, no fleets – strike Tel Aviv!”
The chants blended solidarity with Gaza and condemnation of Israel’s naval assault with appeals for regional and international action.
At sea, surrounded by Israeli naval ships, Global Sumud Flotilla organizers vowed that neither the interception nor the arrests would halt their mission.
“We are determined to continue the course of the flotilla and to break the siege on Gaza,” Seif Abu Keshk, spokesperson for the GSF, told Al Jazeera in the early hours of Thursday. “The real solution is ending the blockade, stopping the genocide, and allowing aid to enter.”
Khaldiya Abu Bakra, another flotilla spokesperson, said participants would resist Israeli pressure.
“We will not sign any papers presented by the Israeli authorities,” she said. “Our activists were detained in international waters. The arrival of our ships to Palestinian territory is legal and legitimate. We do not believe the occupation’s lies that it will deliver the aid we are carrying. Our attempts to reach Gaza will continue until the Israeli blockade is lifted.”
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