A demonstration marched through the streets of Tunis this Sunday demanding the release of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, detained in the North African country since March.
Seven members of the Global Sumud Flotilla coordination committee were detained on March 6 after Tunisian police prevented a commemoration of the initiative at the port of Sidi Bou Said. Days later, a judge of the Economic and Financial Judicial Pole ordered preventive detention for all of them.
The judge’s order alleged money laundering. The national committee for the defense of the activists denounced at the time that the order was issued without the activists — among them Wael Nawar, who managed the funds donated for last summer’s humanitarian initiative to Gaza — having been interrogated.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights stated that the financial charges imputed to the detainees are “fabricated” to “undermine” future solidarity actions with the Palestinian people.
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In the march, demonstrators expressed support for the detained activists and denounced the “criminalization” of support for the Palestinian cause and the mistreatment of prisoners by Tunisian authorities. The protest was supported by Tunisian civil society associations and political parties, with slogans such as “there is no fear, the street belongs to the people” and chants in favor of Palestine.
On September 13, a Tunis court ordered the extension for another four months of the preventive detention measure imposed on four Tunisian activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla, arrested on Tunisian territory and currently on hunger strike to protest their imprisonment.
The national committee for the defense of the activists has portrayed their imprisonment as a “serious indicator of the decline of the official Tunisian stance,” a historically pro-Palestinian country, and an “alignment with imperialist policies.”
URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Wael, Nabil, Ghassan, and Ghassan are on hunger strike, and their health is deteriorating fast. Four lives are on the line.
Their appeal hearing is September 23rd. We’re calling on everyone to mobilize on September 22nd, outside your local Tunisian embassy… pic.twitter.com/OElffxYECd
— Global Sumud Flotilla (@gbsumudflotilla) September 19, 2026
In posts on X, amid the march in Tunis, Global Sumud Flotilla reiterated that Wael, Nabil, Ghassan and Ghassan are on hunger strike and their health is deteriorating rapidly. “Four lives are on the line,” warned the coalition of solidarity organizations, which reported that their appeal hearing is on September 23. “We’re calling on everyone to mobilize on September 22nd, outside your local Tunisian embassy or consulate. Every voice counts.,” the Flotilla wrote.
A similar situation was experienced by 10 members of Convoy Global Sumud Magreb in Libya between May and late June, when they were released. The activists, from Spain, Poland, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Tunisia and Italy, were illegally held in unknown areas and also went on hunger strike.
Palestinians who have been resisting settler violence and land theft for decades are asking us to show up. Physical attacks by Israeli occupation forces and settlers in the West Bank are escalating daily. Homes are being demolished, land seized, and families driven out in night… pic.twitter.com/FW0HQRSnEM
— Global Sumud Flotilla (@gbsumudflotilla) September 5, 2026
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