The new flotilla with humanitarian aid and activists, of which Greta Thunberg finally left this Monday, September 1, Spain, in an attempt to “break Gaza’s illegal seat,” their organizers on Instagram announced Monday night.
These twenty ships had left Barcelona for the first time on Sunday with the aim of “opening a humanitarian corridor and ending genocide in the Palestinian people” in the context of war between Israel and Hamas, according to their organizers.
“Due to the dangerous climatic conditions, we carried out a test at the sea and then return to the port to let the storm pass. This led to a delay in our departure to avoid complications with smaller boats,” on Monday morning Global Sumud Flatilla, without specifying, the ships had returned to the port of Barcelona.
Elected officials and activists
Among the activists of dozens of countries present in these ships are the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, the Irish actors Liam Cunningham and the Spanish Eduard Fernández, as well as European elected officials and public figures, including the former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau.
The Sumud Global Fleet Bars (“Sumud” means “resilience” in Arabic) planned to get to Gaza in mid -September to send humanitarian aid there, after two attempts blocked by Israel in June and July.
For this flotilla, it must join “dozen” of additional ships, which will leave Tunisia and other Mediterranean ports on September 4, and simultaneous actions “in solidarity with the Palestinian people” will be organized in 44 countries, announced in early August Greta Thunberg, a member of the Global Committee Sumud Flotilla Sumud. Sumud’s global flotillas are defined in its site as an “independent” and “are not affiliated with any political government.”
A similar attempt in June
This new initiative occurs after a similar attempt to deliver help to Gaza, in which Greta Thunberg had already participated but had failed. The Madleen sailboat, with 12 French, German, Brazilian, Turkish, Swedish, Spaniards and Dutch activists, had been intercepted on June 9 by Israeli forces about 185 kilometers west of the coast of Gaza.
The United Nations declared in August the state of the famine in Gaza, warning that 500,000 people are in a “catastrophic” situation. The war was caused by the unprecedented attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the death of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to a count of the AFP of the official data.
Since then, Israeli military reprisals have made at least 63,459 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to figures of the Ministry of Health of Gaza, considered reliable by the UN.
Source: BFM TV
