A flotilla carrying actress Susan Sarandon, activist Greta Thunberg and others departed from Barcelona for the Gaza Strip on Sunday with humanitarian aid on board.
The Global Sumud Flotilla will try to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory and bring humanitarian aid, food, water and medicine to Gaza as Israel steps up its offensive in Gaza City.
“The story here is about Palestine,” Thunberg said at a press conference in Barcelona. “The story here is how people are being deliberately deprived of the very basic means to survive.”
Food experts warned earlier this month that Gaza City was in famine and that half a million people across the strip were facing catastrophic levels of hunger. The nearly 23-month war has killed more than 63,000 people, with at least 332 Palestinians dying of malnutrition, including 124 children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
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The maritime convoy, comprising approximately 20 boats and delegations from 44 countries, will be joined by additional ships from ports in Italy, Greece, and Tunisia in the coming days as it navigates its route from the western Mediterranean to the Gaza Strip, organizers said.
Thunberg, Sarandon and “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham are some of the most recognizable figures on the expedition, as well as activists, politicians like former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and journalists.
“It has been very clear that Israel has been continuously violating international law by either attacking, unlawfully intercepting the boats in international waters, and continuously preventing the humanitarian aid from coming in”, said Thunberg in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday.
It is not the first time Thunberg and Cunninham will attempt to reach Gaza waters this year. She was deported in June when the ship she was traveling on with 11 other people, the Madleen, was stopped by the Israeli military.
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Cunningham, who will join the flotilla, played a video showing a girl singing while planning her own funeral. The girl, Fatima, died four days ago, he said.
“What sort of world have we slid into where children are making their own funeral arrangements?” Cunningham told reporters.
In late July, the Israeli military stopped another aid ship, detained 21 international activists and reporters, and seized its cargo, including baby formula, food and medicine, according to Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
An Israeli official said Saturday that the country will soon halt or slow humanitarian aid into parts of northern Gaza, as it expands its military offensive against Hamas, a day after the city was declared a combat zone.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when an attack by Hamas terrorists inside Israel claimed the lives of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 people hostage.
