Washington DC - In an interview with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, several US activists on board the Gaza-bound Handala aid boat sounded the alarm on the illegal Israeli blockade in Gaza.

In a social media livestream shared Wednesday, the Michigan representative spoke with three of the seven US citizens on board the Handala, which departed from Sicily earlier this month.

Palestinian-American activist Huwaida Arraf, who hails from Detroit, Michigan, spoke of her years-long work with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in an effort to break the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.

"We have had to continue to sail because it is unacceptable to abide by – to respect – an illegal blockade," Arraf said.

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"Now, it's being used as a tool of Israel's genocide. They have engineered a famine. We're seeing starving children, and our government is still not doing anything about it.

"It's absolutely outrageous that you have to have civilians here from New York, from Michigan, from other parts [of the country], out in the middle of the Mediterranean on a small boat going to confront one of the most brutal militaries in the world to say, 'We're not going to accept it.'"

Chris Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union, drew attention to the connection between corporate greed and the ongoing genocide in Gaza during the livestream.

"I'm just happy to be once again the labor leader who's trying to connect the dots," he said. "Amazon is the Iron Dome. AWS – the web services – is the intelligence that the Israeli military used to target and kill these innocent civilians, mostly women and children. And that's the sense that I'm taking as a labor leader coming from America, coming from New York."

Talib echoed his comments, saying: "A lot of my colleagues own stock and war manufacturing. So, the longer this genocide goes on, the more profit they make."

Also onboard is Jacob Berger, a Jewish-American activist and content creator who said that he wanted to use his online platform to promote the mission of the Handala and combat misinformation about Israel's assault on Gaza.

"When the opportunity arose to come on the Handala, I knew I needed to step up because it really is on all Jewish-Americans to be part of this, because of, unfortunately, things like white privilege and Jewish privilege, people will listen to me more about Palestine than they will an actual person from Palestine," Berger said.

The Handala, which is packed with humanitarian aid, specifically draws attention to its focus on the children of Gaza with an array of stuffed animals attached to the ship.

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"Israel tells the world that what it's doing is always about security. They blame everything on Hamas," Arraf said. "They're threatening to stop this boat that's carrying baby formula and teddy bears for children, like what excuse does it have?"

The Handala's efforts come after nearly two dozen children died in just three days as a result of "malnutrition and starvation," and as more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while attempting to seek aid at the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by the US.

Despite the ongoing atrocities, Smalls spoke of how he has been able to find inspiration from younger activists, who have continued to stand up against Israel's war on Gaza despite increasing threats from the current US presidential administration.

"If there's one lesson that we need to learn in the US, it's that the younger generation is standing on business," he said. "From the students at Colombia, all the encampments that I visit, all the students I've met across the country, they are no longer going to be complicit or participate in this endless genocide that's been taking place for the last two and a half years.

"We are in desperate need of how we can finally hold Israel accountable. There's no way that this country – this apartheid state – the size of New Jersey has caused so much pain and grief around the world. It's insane."