‘Will I be punished for daring to return?’ Australian flotilla activists to head back to Gaza as wider war rages

Organisers say aid mission is at the mercy of regional geopolitics Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Juliet Lamont has reason to be apprehensive as she prepares to set sail for Gaza. The New South Wales film-maker and Global Sumud flotilla Australian delegation co-head spent six days in an Israeli prison in October after the vessel she was travelling on was intercepted by the Israeli military. She says she was sexually assaulted, deprived of medication, humiliated and subjected to physical violence while held captive. Now, six months on, up to 100 boats are preparing to again sail to Gaza in the hope of delivering food, aid, medical supplies and volunteers to the decimated strip, which remains under naval blockade by Israel. Lamont, 55, will be on board again, with the fleet scheduled to leave Barcelona in mid-April before joining other boats en route to Gaza. “I just wonder if I will be punished for coming back, for daring to return,” she says from a European port whose exact location is being kept secret by organisers. “It’s a mixture of being completely terrified, but then being so centred in my acknowledgment of the Palestinian suffering that I

Apr 4, 2026 → Apr 14, 2026