Aid flotilla with Greta Thunberg set to sail for Gaza to ‘break illegal siege’
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Version 0 of 1. Unspecified number of vessels due to depart Barcelona on Sunday, with dozens more expected to leave other Mediterranean ports on 4 September A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is due to leave from Barcelona on Sunday to try to “break the illegal siege of Gaza”, organisers said. The vessels will set off from the Spanish port city to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”, said the Global Sumud Flotilla. They did not say how many ships would set sail or the exact time of departure. The flotilla is expected to arrive at the war-ravaged coastal enclave in mid-September. “This will be the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined,” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila told journalists in Barcelona last week. Organisers say that dozens of other vessels are expected to leave Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports on 4 September. Activists will also stage simultaneous demonstrations and other protests in 44 countries “in solidarity with the Palestinian people”, Thunberg, who is part of the flotilla’s steering committee, wrote on Instagram. As well as Thunberg, the flotilla will include activists from several countries, European lawmakers and public figures such as former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. “We understand that this is a legal mission under international law,” leftwing Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortágua, who will join the mission, told journalists in Lisbon last week. Israel has already blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July. In June, 12 activists on board the sailboat Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces 185km west of Gaza. Its passengers, who included Thunberg, were detained and eventually expelled. In July, 21 activists from 10 countries were intercepted as they tried to approach Gaza in another vessel, the Handala. |