ORCAS, Wash. — Jasmine Ikeda stepped off a plane at Boeing Field in Seattle Sunday, carrying the weight of several days spent in an Israeli prison.

The 32-year-old Orcas Island activist had just been released after being intercepted aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of over 40 boats carrying over 400 activists who were trying to deliver aid to Gaza and challenge the blockade.

"It feels great," she said, still visibly exhausted. "Relief. And I think once I land on Orcas and see my community again, it'll feel even better."

Ikeda says her connection to Gaza stretches back more than a decade, to 2013, when a friend returned from the West Bank with harrowing stories of occupation and displacement. But it was Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent blockade that crystallized her resolve i

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