BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Dozens of boats carrying activists and aid for Palestinians in Gaza set sail from the northeastern Spanish city of Barcelona on Wednesday.
Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say that more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world will participate, with campaigners saying it's the biggest civilian-led mobilization of its kind against Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory.
Nearly 40 boats were leaving Barcelona while the rest will join the fleet from other ports along the Mediterranean as they sail eastward, according to Thiago Ávila, one of the flotilla's leaders who spoke at a news conference in Barcelona on Sunday during a symbolic send-off event. Bad weather had forced organizers to delay their departure, which was originally planned for April 12.
As attention has turned to the Iran war, activists hope that their latest mission will revive attention to the plight of Palestinians living in Gaza.
“We sail because governments have failed,” said Saif Abukeshek, a Palestinian activist and member of the flotilla's global steering committee.
“They want a society that feels helpless, that cannot act, that cannot mobilize," Abukeshek said on Sunday. “We refuse to be that society.”
Last week, Gaza marked six months since a ceasefire made the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants stop. Yet Israeli attacks have killed more than 700 people in the six months since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Much of the ceasefire work remains to be done, from disarming Hamas and ending its rule to deploying an international stabilization force and beginning vast reconstruction. Around 2 million Gaza residents are still living in ruins with shortages of food and medicine, and only limited aid entering through a single, Israeli-controlled border post.
Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian population.
The Global Sumud Flotilla's latest efforts come less than a year after another attempt was foiled by Israeli authorities.
Last fall, dozens of boats sailed close to Gaza, with one even crossing the 12-nautical-mile line (22-kilometer line) marking the divide from international waters to territorial waters off Gaza. But they were all ultimately intercepted and seized or turned away.
Those sailing last year, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, were arrested, imprisoned and deported by Israel. They claimed Israeli authorities abused them while in detention, accusations that Israeli authorities denied.
Their interception at sea had been broadcast live by onboard cameras, sparking worldwide protests at the time. But attention on Gaza has since waned, with eyes focused now on the latest Iran war upending the Middle East and roiling global markets.
Organizers hope this mission will bring back attention to the conditions of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, which was ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war. More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Greenpeace Spain and migrant rescue group Open Arms, which have committed their two large vessels to sail alongside the smaller flotilla boats, are among those supporting the flotilla.
“We sail because the people of Gaza have a right to exist and to breathe and to thrive on their land,” said Eva Saldaña, head of Greenpeace Spain.
