During the trips, participants and organizers regularly posted statements, pictures, and in some cases videos of the boats' progress on the FGM Web site.  Several of the FGM groups brought Palestinians back to Cyprus when they left Gaza, allegedly for medical and other humanitarian reasons.

Some FGM participants remained in Gaza after the boats returned to Cyprus, either to engage in ISM resistance efforts, humanitarian work, or to cross over into Israel.  In multiple cases, these individuals were arrested by Israeli authorities.

In November 2008, for example, FGM participants who stayed in Gaza following the August mission were arrested at sea while accompanying Gazan fishermen on their boats, in what the activists claimed was an effort to protect the fishermen from the Israeli navy.  After the boats allegedly crossed into prohibited waters the Israeli Defense Forces arrested 15 fisherman and the three internationals—Darlene Wallach of San Jose, CA, Andrew Muncie from Scotland, and Vittorio Arrigoni from Italy—who were then detained by Israeli authorities for a time and eventually deported to their respective countries.

At least three other FGM participants, all Israeli citizens, have been arrested by Israeli border authorities at the Erez crossing between Gaza and Sderot for entering Gaza without a permit, which Israeli law prohibits.  Golan, Hass and Jeff Halper, director of the Jerusalem-based Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, were detained by Sderot police for questioning before eventually being released, some with court dates.

Though FGM missions have delivered medical and other supplies to Gazans, organizers have consistently emphasized the political nature of the campaign.  In fact, FGM stated in a June 2007 press release that the transport of aid supplies would not be "a primary part of our mission."

FGM's broader mission, as stated on its Web site, is to elicit international opposition to Israel's policies: "We want to break the siege of Gaza.  We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation."

In press releases and on its Web site, the group has described the Gaza Strip as an "open-air concentration camp controlled by land, sea and air" and asserted that Israel "withholds food and energy in an attempt to starve [Gazans] into submission."  It has accused Israel of committing war crimes and Israeli politicians of "vicious racism." Additionally, it has lamented the "accelerated Judaization of Jerusalem" and referred to the events surrounding the founding of the Jewish State as a "historic injustice."

Since it was announced, FGM has been endorsed by several American organizations that regularly promote anti-Israel views in campaigns and at events, including American Muslims for Palestine, International Action Center, Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a grassroots movement that spreads anti-Israel propaganda and misinformation and voices support for those who engage in armed resistance against Israel, has also played a major role in FGM's campaign.  

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has a history of promoting anti-Israel efforts, stated his support for the campaign in a letter in which he lamented that Gaza "is suffering under a cruel siege."

FGM was one of the many efforts promoted in 2008 as a commemoration of the "Nakba," an Arabic word meaning 'catastrophe' or 'disaster' that many Palestinians and Arabs use to refer to the 1948 war and the establishment of the State of Israel.