The “Global Steadfast Fleet” to break the Israeli blockade announced on Tuesday evening that it is now approximately 370 kilometers away from the Gaza Strip.

The International Committee to Break the Siege said via the American platform “Facebook”: “We are about 370 kilometers away from reaching Gaza.”

It added, “We are determined to achieve the fleet’s goals… to break the siege and open a maritime corridor.”

A spokesperson at a press conference representing the Maghreb Steadfast Fleet, a member of the global fleet, said: “Today (Tuesday evening), we are just hours away, perhaps, before Israeli intervention to prevent the Global Steadfast Fleet from reaching Gaza.”

She added that the fleet “includes about 532 participants from more than 45 countries,” according to the Maghreb Fleet’s Facebook page.

She continued: “About 50 ships are currently in the orange zone, just before the red zone where the Israeli entity usually intercepts siege-breaking fleets heading to Gaza.”

International organizations, including Amnesty International, called for protection of the “Steadfast Fleet,” while the United Nations confirmed that any attack on it “is unacceptable.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that more than 50 ships belonging to the fleet approached the Gaza coast, and Israel continues its preparations to intercept them.

Israel, the occupying power in Palestine, has previously engaged in piracy against ships heading to Gaza, seizing them and deporting the activists on board.

This is the first time dozens of ships sail together towards Gaza, home to about 2.4 million Palestinians, in a collective attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Strip.

Israel has besieged Gaza for 18 years, leaving about 1.5 million Palestinians out of approximately 2.4 million in the Strip homeless after their homes were destroyed in the war of extermination.

On March 2nd, the blockade was tightened by closing all crossings leading to Gaza, preventing any food, medicine, or humanitarian aid from entering, plunging the Strip into famine despite aid trucks piling up at its borders.

Sometimes Israel allows very limited aid that does not meet the minimum needs of the hungry nor end the famine, especially as most trucks are looted by gangs that the Gaza government says Israel protects.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has committed genocide in Gaza, resulting in 66,097 martyrs and 168,536 wounded, most of them children and women, and famine has claimed the lives of 442 Palestinians, including 147 children.