“Wherever the [Sumoud] Convoy Stops is the Start of Israel’s Border”*

The Sumoud (resilience/steadfastness) overland aid convoy to break the genocidal US/European/Israeli siege on Gaza set off from Tunis on June 9, 2025. It passed through numerous towns in Tunisia, gathering participants, then gathered more after it had crossed into Libya. It was ultimately stopped outside of Sirte by authorities in eastern Libya who used violence, kidnappings, detentions and siege tactics. Although many participants believed that the convoy would be able to achieve its goal despite the challenges, many say it was still a worthy cause to pursue despite being turned back.

Gathering Forces

The convoy was organized by the Joint Action Coordination Committee for Palestine in Tunisia. After launching from Tunis, it passed through Sousse, Sfax, Gabes, Medenine and Ben Guerdane before reaching the Tunisia-Libya border at the Ras Jdir crossing. Organizers say it gathered about 1,200 participants by the time it had crossed into Libya, including activists, journalists, doctors, and ordinary citizens from Tunisia, Mauritania, Sudan, and Algeria. Libyan citizens also joined  the convoy as it moved from the western to the eastern part of the country through Tripoli, Misrata, and towards Sirte. The convoy was meant to cross Benghazi and Tobruk before reaching the Libya-Egypt border at Sallum.

By the time the Sumoud Convoy reached Misrata, Libya on June 25, organizers say it had grown to 1600 participants.

Organizers say that in the early days, the convoy was met with great enthusiasm and support from the residents of the Tunisian towns it passed through, as well as with warmth and assistance from the Libyan people. People provided food, water, and shelter, and the Libyan authorities in the west, which is controlled by the internationally recognized “Government of National Unity” (GNU), played a significant role in assisting, Tunisian organizers said. Authorities in western Libya ensured the security of the participants, facilitated their movement, provided them with necessary guidance, and allocated public spaces for rest, such as schools and mosques, organizers say.

Yassine Gaidi, one of the organizing committee members, told Meshkal that the convoy journey itself fostered unprecedented solidarity among the participating from all nationalities around the North Africa region, as well representing as a remarkable coalition of political, ideological, and intellectual diversity.

“The group included participants from both the far-right and the far-left, and it was nearly impossible to impose a single agenda on them. However, the higher purpose of the movement helped overcome these differences as the convoy progressed,” Gaidi told Meshkal.

The Peoples Reject the Authorities’ Borders

The situation began to deteriorate when the convoy reached “Al Khamsin [50] Gate,” 50 kilometers west of Sirte, where the de facto authority of the western GNU ends. Beyond that point, eastern Libya is supposedly controlled by the competing Government of National Stability (GNS), but the real authority is presumed to be with General Khalifa Hafter. Hafter, a former CIA-asset who lived in exile in northern Virginia in the United States for two decades after receiving support from the U.S. in his attempt to overthrow Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, is also closely aligned with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former general and graduate of the United State Army War College in Pennsylvania who became president of Egypt in 2014 after leading a coup and massacring over 1000 people.

Near the Al-Khamsin Gate, authorities asked the convoy to wait for permission to enter, organizers say. This procedure contradicted the earlier statement issued by GNS Prime Minister, Osama Hammad, which expressed sympathy and support for the convoy’s goals.

In that statement, the GNS’ Foreign Ministry stressed that it would not accept participants who did not carry passports and stamps confirming their legal entry into Libyan territory. It also called on convoy participants to respect any procedures Egypt imposes in case the convoy were to reach there.

After days of optimism fueled by the North African unity on display, the convoy collided with the bureaucratic hurdle of a de facto policy contradicting the official statements.

Meshkal spoke with Iman Hammami, a Tunisian journalism student and participant in the convoy, who recounted the abductions carried out by the Eastern Libyan authorities in a random manner.

“Because of the large number of participants and the large territory of the camps on the outskirts of Sirte, vehicles from the eastern Libyan authorities would come, interrogate participants, and detain them without us realizing it. We wouldn’t notice the [participants’] disappearance until some time later,” she said.

The convoy’s organizing committee also said that eastern Libyan authorities contacted them to claim that the purpose of these detentions was to verify some participants’ identities and stamps on their travel documents. Security officials claimed to the participants that those they had arrested had broken security instructions, such as photographing armed forces and using drones.

Regarding the restrictions on journalists’ work, Yassine Gaidi, a professional photojournalist who works with national and international news agencies, shared that there were clear instructions to confiscate any professional photographic equipment. What journalists were able to capture was only through hiding, with the help of fellow participants and local residents who supported the convoy.

“One of the moments I will never forget,” Yassine said, “is when local residents gathered around me at moments when I had to take pictures, risking their safety and freedom to shed light on part of the truth.”

In consideration of the customs of the countries the convoy visited, Iman Hammami explained that women participants made sure to cover their heads in the more religiously conservative areas to avoid disturbing any political or ideological sensitivities with the local population. They also wanted to send a subtle message that the convoy did not aim to provoke any political or ideological group, but rather its ultimate goal was to break the siege on Gaza.

Solidarity or Politics?

One of the major points of discussion about the Sumoud Convoy was the politicization of solidarity with Palestinians. The Egyptian media, for example, repeated that the convoy aimed not only to embarrass the Egyptian government but to incite public protests against the Egyptian regime and expose its complicity in the starvation and genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Egyptian government has consistently argued that it keeps the border with Gaza closed so that Palestinians aren’t permanently displaced, but critics have argued that Egypt is complicit in enforcing Israel’s blockade.

In the midst of ongoing media campaign attempting to discredit the convoy, one of the convoy’s spokespeople, Ghassan Henshiri, offered a rebuttal and clarification, stating on June 12th that convoy organizers had, in advance of their departure from Tunis, deposited copies of participants’ passports and a list of their names at the Egyptian Embassy in Tunis. This was followed by a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador to Tunisia Bassem Yahia Hassan to Tunisia, a meeting Henshiri described as fruitful and promising. The organizers clarified to the ambassador their position of solidarity with the Egyptian people and armed forces, emphasizing their sole goal of pressuring Israel to stop the war and allow aid into Gaza.

Despite this statement, a fierce media campaign in Egypt continued in the following days,  apparently aiming to demonize the convoy and question its intentions, resorting to the easiest accusations in Egypt today: falsely associating the convoy with the Muslim Brotherhood. In reality, the convoy’s leadership came mostly from progressive and leftist backgrounds, and they say that members were diverse in political orientation. Additionally, the apparent coordination between Egypt and eastern Libyan authorities, as referenced by the GNS’ Foreign Ministry statement,  may have played a role in ultimately preventing the convoy from achieving its stated goal.

To Fail Successfully

After being cut off from supplies and facing kidnappings, the convoy retreated to Misrata to resupply, and then on June 15 it returned to Sirte to demand the release of all those participants who had been kidnapped & detained by eastern Libyan authorities. Upon their release on June 19, the convoy returned to Tunisia.

Upon its return, the convoy received a warm reception from the public in various Tunisian cities, and many who attended the welcome ceremony or shared on social media considered it a victory for the civil mobilization against institutional rigidity and international indifference, even though the convoy did not reach its declared goal of reaching Rafah.

“I consider that we succeeded in shaking global consciousness, and the convoy generated a lot of media attention. I believe that, if it weren’t for the outbreak of the armed conflict between Israel and Iran, the convoy would have sparked weeks more discussion around the world,” said Yassine Gaidi, who says he is proud of their effort.

Gaidi also praised the unity he witnessed in the convoy between the peoples of the Maghreb [North Africa], which he considers “a gain and a nucleus for a Maghreb awakening on the issues that unite them, more than those that divide them, which are usually created by the rulers.”

*Headline quotation by Instagram user @missmissoni

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