Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, along with other people, will set sail to on an aid flotilla on Sunday.
The Global Sumud Flotilla will depart from Spain. The word “sumud” in Arabic means “steadfastness.”
In addition to Thunberg, left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua and former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau will be on the flotilla.
Thunberg said “dozens more” vessels would join the flotilla on September 4, setting sail from Tunisia and other ports. The flotilla is set to involve hundreds of people from 44 countries.
Thunberg said the flotilla aimed to break the “illegal Israeli siege” of Gaza amid a dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave, where a famine was recently declared according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
“This will be the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined,” Brazilian activist Thiago Avila told reporters in Barcelona last week.
Avila stirred controversy when he attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in February. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Shiite political party and military group in Lebanon, and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, Germany, Argentina and several other governments.
Both Thunberg and Avila were previously on board a Gaza-bound ship, the Madleen, which was on the Mediterranean in June.
They, along with other activists, were detained and then after the ship’s interception.
Israel has enforced a naval blockade around Gaza since 2007, when the militant Hamas group took control of the enclave.
Israel argues that the blockade is necessary to keep weapons from getting to Hamas, but rights groups have criticized the blockade as a form of collective punishment inflicted on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
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