BARCELONA: A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, have left Barcelona, vowing to try to “break the illegal siege of Gaza”, AFP reports quoting organizers.
Some 20 vessels set off from the port city on Spain’s east coast just after 3:30 pm (6:30 pm PKT) pledging to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”, said the Global Sumud Flotilla.
The group defines itself on its website as an independent organisation with no affiliation to any government or political party. The flotilla, flying Palestinian flags, has hundreds of people aboard, among them activists from dozens of countries, including Irish actor Liam Cunningham and Spain’s Eduard Fernandez.
Also aboard were European lawmakers and public figure,s including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.
The flotilla is expected to arrive at the ravaged coastal enclave in mid-September.
Global Sumud Flotilla to depart in a few hours, ‘determined to break the siege’: organiser
Yasemin Acar, an organiser with the Global Sumud Flotilla, has said the mission’s ships will set sail within hours before joining partner vessels from Tunisia and Greece in international waters.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Barcelona, Acar said that while the boats can carry only limited aid for a population of two million people who are “currently being starved”, the flotilla is not merely symbolic.
“We are really determined to break the siege,” Acar said. “And if they [Israeli authorities] attack us once again, if they intercept us, kidnap us and imprison us, … we will come back even stronger.
“We are sending a message to the Palestinians that we are in solidarity with them, but in action. Our lives are not worth more than their lives,“ Acar was quoted as saying.
UNRWA says Israel blocking Gaza shelter supplies for nearly 6 months
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has said children in Gaza are once again being forced from their homes as Israel intensifies its military operations.
“Children in Gaza are not walking to school. They are once again being forced to try to find somewhere safe. But there is nowhere,” UNRWA wrote on X.
The agency said overcrowding and the continued Israeli blockade on aid are leaving families without shelter.
“There is not enough space. There are not enough tents,” it added.
“Let us bring in UNRWA’s shelter supplies which have been banned for almost 6 months.”
