Storm Stops Gaza-Bound Flotilla With Greta Thunberg, ‘Games of Thrones’ Actor, and Terror Group ‘Coordinator’

A flotilla of 20 boats which included participants from 44 countries, climate advocate Greta Thunberg, “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham, and a member of Samidoun (designated by the US and Canada as a “sham charity” for a terrorist group) left port in Barcelona on Sunday for Gaza only to return back within hours due to winds of approximately 35 miles per hour.

The anti-Israel assemblage of activists sought to break Israel’s naval blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza to deliver aid, an effort previously pursued with Thunberg in June, and notably first attempted in May 2010 by the Free Gaza Movement which resulted in 10 deaths and dozens of injuries.

Global Sumud Flotilla Mission says it has mounted the largest effort to date to try penetrating the Israeli naval defenses and released a statement about the decision to delay the voyage’s launch, saying “we conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass. This meant delaying our departure to avoid risking complications with the smaller boats.”

Israel had reportedly already prepared to intercept the boats and then planned to administer “terrorist-level” detention conditions to the celebrity activists and the group of international participants.

One factor potentially fueling such firm punition for the flotilla’s passengers could be the presence of Jaldia Abubakra, a co-founder of Masar Badil Palestinian Revolutionary Path and the coordinator for the Madrid branch of Samidoun, an organization birthed through 2011 hunger strikes fomented by prisoners in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group.

Masar Badil confirmed Abubakra’s presence in the flotilla on Friday.

Samidoun, which identifies itself as a “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network,” is a radical anti-Israel advocacy organization that has taken part in pro-Hamas protests across the West, including in the US, Canada, and countries in Europe.

Germany banned Samidoun, whose demonstrations in Berlin have featured cries of “Death to the Jews,” in the days following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Samidoun previously described the Oct. 7 atrocities as an act of “heroic Palestinian resistance” and hosted a webinar for a Hamas official who pledged that the Palestinian terrorist organization will repeat its slaughter of Israelis “again and again” to bring about the Jewish state’s “annihilation.”

In October 2024, the US and Canada jointly imposed sanctions on Samidoun, explaining that the prominent anti-Israel group has been operating as a “sham charity” fundraising for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist group.

“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” Bradley Smith, acting US undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said at the time.

Months earlier, in June, YouTube shut down the group’s channel as well as that of its International Coordinator Charlotte Kates. In May 2019, the payment platforms PayPal, DonorBox, and Plaid discontinued support for Samidoun due to its terrorist affiliations.

Abubakra founded Masar Badil in 2021 with Khaled Barakat, a Samidoun leader, also described by Fatah as a “member in the central committee of the PFLP.”

The US banned Barakat from entering the country in 2024 due to his terrorist affiliations. In March of that year he praised the use of airplane hijackings as “one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

Barakat and Kates attended the funeral for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in February 2025.

“This is my journey to Palestine. I am returning with the Freedom Flotilla, together with all the free people who have decided to break the siege, support the steadfastness of our people, and expose the crimes of the occupation before the world,” Abubakra said in a statement.

“We must assume our responsibility in the diaspora toward our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and all of occupied Palestine, which I see as one land from the river to the sea. After all, we are one people, with one cause and one destiny, and our rights are indivisible,” he added.

Kates wrote on X on Aug. 24, 2024, “Hate to self-post, but back in 2006, some zionist posted this video on youtube which was supposed to ‘expose’ me (and our movement). Inspired tonight to repeat that call today, 18 yrs later — We stand with the Palestinian resistance, with Hezbollah, with the resistance and people in Iraq. These are our troops, our freedom fighters, and we support them! And we must still work to build our resistance here [sic].”

That month, Kates traveled to Iran to receive the “Eighth Annual Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Award.” Other honorees at the ceremony included Ziyad Nakhaleh, a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by Israel in July 2024.