Three Egyptian activists within a local initiative challenging Israel's maritime blockade on Gaza were suddenly disappeared late on 29 September, raising questions about their whereabouts and spreading fear among their colleagues.

 

The three activists were part of the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla, a grassroots movement that brought together Egyptian civil society, some of Egypt's professional unions, and public figures in a bid to deliver a message of solidarity with the people of Gaza.

 

The initiative raised funds and collected material aid, including foodstuffs, medicines, and other necessities, and planned to join the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), a nonviolent international effort aimed at challenging the Israeli-imposed blockade and famine in Gaza.

 

It is a bold push for national involvement in solidarity with the Palestinians, seeking to avoid straining Egypt's land-based aid channels like the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza by using a maritime route to reach the war-flattened coastal territory.

 

The three activists disappeared, however, all of a sudden, but were last seen in downtown Cairo, according to fellow organisers who were informed about their disappearance by their families.

 

"We were told that they did not go home," Ziad Bassioni, one of the organisers of the flotilla, told The New Arab.

 

Egyptian authorities have not issued an official statement about the disappearance of the three activists, nor have they indicated whether there was an arrest warrant against them.

 

Nonetheless, fellow organisers believe that their disappearance is connected with their activism within the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla.

 

 

 

 

The Egyptian Sumud Flotilla initiative was launched on 8 September and aspired to form a support base to act as the Egyptian public's participation in the global effort to end the siege on Gaza.

 

Its organisers have addressed almost all professional unions, al-Azhar and the Coptic Orthodox Church to join in.

 

It has so far collected over three tonnes of aid and been joined by numerous public figures, including political activists, journalists, lawyers, and other notable individuals.

 

The initiative had planned to load five boats with this humanitarian aid and sail en route to Gaza after joining the GSF, which is now only around 100 nautical miles from the Gaza coast.

 

Nevertheless, its organisers continue to struggle to obtain official permission to use Egypt's Mediterranean ports to join the GSF, despite having addressed all relevant government agencies, including port authorities.

 

"We cannot find any reason for denying us the permissions," one of the organisers told TNA on condition of anonymity.

 

He attributed official procrastination to issue the required permissions to fears from Egyptian activists getting caught in the middle of an expected violent action by the Israeli army against the GSF.

 

Israel has already decided to intercept vessels travelling to Gaza within the GSF.

 

The latest disappearance of three organisers adds to the challenges facing the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla as it attempts to join the GSF.

 

It compounds the lack of official cooperation with the initiative and pressures placed on its organisers since the very beginning.

 

These pressures, some of the organisers said, included threats by security agencies against insisting on moving ahead with organising the flotilla.

 

One of the organisers said that he and his colleagues had to scale back the number of vessels they planned to include in the flotilla due to pressure from security agencies.

 

Some local vessel owners agreed to be part of the flotilla, he added, only to change their minds a short time later.

 

He added that vessel owners in some of Egypt's Mediterranean cities were warned against joining the flotilla or leasing their vessels to the initiative.

 

The same pressures likely led to the cancellation of a conference planned by the Egyptian Sumud Flotilla earlier this month, intended to rally public support for its initiative.

 

 

 

 

Egypt is the primary aid entry point into Gaza, with the North Sinai city of al-Arish serving as a logistical hub that receives tens of thousands of tonnes of international aid destined for Gaza every day.

 

Cairo has also been lobbying hard for increasing the amount of aid entering the devastated territory since Israel's genocidal war began.

 

However, its hostility to civil society initiatives seeking to end the blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory is probably why its aid policy is coming under fire globally.

 

The same criticism also highlights the delicate political balancing act Egypt must perform.

 

In a way, Egypt does not want to be portrayed as being responsible for the humanitarian suffering of the people of Gaza. This is why it keeps asserting that its border crossing with the war-ravaged territory is open all the time.

 

In another, Egypt cannot let whatever it wants into Gaza, given the fact that Israel has been occupying the Gaza side of the border since May this year.

 

On 26 September, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah underscored the difficult situation his country finds itself in. Egypt, he said, wants to send as much aid into Gaza as possible, but it is the Israelis who prevent aid from entering.

 

"Are we supposed to engage in a military showdown with Israel to force it to let the aid in?" the Egyptian president asked rhetorically.

 

 

 

 

Bassioni and other organisers have mandated a lawyer to follow legal channels to know the whereabouts of the three organisers who disappeared on 29 September.

 

Egypt has a record of political activists' disappearances, a record that first started following the 2011 uprising against the longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, but continues to persist until the present.

 

It also has a record of hostility to public initiatives, seeking to take solidarity with Gaza into their own hands.

 

In June, Egyptian authorities rounded up dozens of foreign activists in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, who tried to reach Sinai and then the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza as part of the Global March to Gaza.

 

The authorities then denied dozens of buses, carrying hundreds of international activists who tried to reach the Egypt-Gaza border, travelling across almost all of North Africa, entry into Egypt from Libya.

 

The disappearance of the three activists adds to this record, flotilla activists said.

 

"This development sends a very bad message, not only to Egyptians, but also to people everywhere else," Bassioni said.    - (ANA) -

 

 

AB/ANA/01 October 2025  - - -