Acclaimed Bangladeshi photographer and rights activist Shahidul Alam, the lone Bangladeshi aboard the flotilla vessel Conscience, on Tuesday said that they were just 70 nautical miles from the āred zoneā on their way to Gaza and fearing arrest by the Israel defence forces when they would enter the area.
He said that they expected to reach the āred zoneā in the sea early morning today as they continued their mission to break the siege of Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces.
āThe slower boats have now caught up with us and we are about 70 nautical miles from the āred zoneā, the region where the IDFĀ had in the past illegally intercepted previous flotillas,ā Shahidul Alam wrote in a Facebook post.
According to a Freedom Flotilla Coalition press release issued on September 30, the launch of Conscience followed the departure of 10 boats that had set sail for Gaza on September 25 and September 27, organised jointly by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens.
The new convoy kept heading towards Gaza, while Israeli naval forces, between October 1 and 3, intercepted 42 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and detained over 462 activists on board as they were attempting to break Israelās siege of Gaza.
Shahidul on Tuesday also said that they were somewhat behind schedule as they decided not to leave behind the Thousand Madleens smaller and slower vehicles, which are also part of Freedom Flotilla Coalition, though they had progressed much faster than the Sumud Flotilla which had faced temporary stoppages due to high winds and a significant storm.
āIt is the morning of October 7, 2025. It was on this day, two years ago, that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups launched a surprise attack on Israel, in which 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 815 civilians, were killed,ā he mentioned, adding that two hundred and fifty-one were taken hostage with the stated goal of forcing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive that followed, over 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, almost half of them women and children, and more than 1,69,000 injured, he said in the statement shared on social media.
āWe are on board the Conscience which is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC). Vessels of the earlier Sumud flotilla, also part of the FFC, which also tried to break the siege of Palestine, have all been captured by the Israeli military. We are proceeding regardless.ā
About their vessel, he said, āConscience is made up mostly of journalists and medics, as these are the two professional groups that Israel have specifically targeted, killing journalists and health workers at a frequency unprecedented in history.ā
Shahidul on Sunday expressed fear that they might be arrested and then would either be deported or imprisoned as had happened to those on the Global Sumud Flotilla that was in front of them carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On Saturday, he wrote in a Facebook post that Conscience, the largest vessel participating in the mission, was the last to set off.
It departed on September 30, 2025, from Otranto, Italy, while eight other boats had left shortly before, he said.
Following the Israeli interception and detention of flotilla activists, thousands of people in Bangladesh and many other countries took to the streets in protest.
Israeli authorities are deporting the detained activists.
Israeli police on Monday said more than 470 people aboard the flotilla boats were arrested.
Israelās foreign ministry on the day said that 138 flotilla participants remained in detention in Israel.