Decades of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US have fostered the dehumanization of people from West Asia, fueling indifference toward the genocide in Gaza, says an American activist.

For months now hundreds of activists have been organizing, where their governments have failed, trying to get the desperately needed humanitarian aid into the battered Gaza Strip and they intend to do it by boat.

A flotilla of ships bound for the Gaza Strip is expected to depart from Turkey in the coming days in an attempt to breach Israel's naval blockade and to draw attention to the limited aid reaching Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

The Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad says it is fully prepared to respond to any act of aggression by the Israeli military.

A Swedish-flagged boat attempting to break the siege of Gaza is likely under attack by Israeli forces as contact with the ship is lost.