Dozens of vessels embarked from Barcelona on Sunday in a bid to reach Gaza and break the Israeli naval blockade, with notable passengers including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Irish actor Liam Cunningham.
Thunberg, a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee, said at a press conference that the ships launched from Spain would be joined by other vessels from Greece, Italy, and Tunis on September 4. The vessels supposedly are carrying humanitarian aid, food, medicine, and water to supply Gazans, with Thunberg asserting that "People are being deliberately deprived of the very basic needs to survive."
Israel was engaging in apartheid, mass slaughter, and had genocidal intent to "erase the Palestinian nation and take over the Gaza Strip," claimed Thunberg.
"Personally, I am terrified of how people can go on with their every day life accepting this genocide," said Thunberg. "For every politician that is fueling the genocide and environment and climate destruction, colonization, and fascism, there will be people escalating the resistance."
Sumud Committee member Saif Abukeshek said at a pre-launch press conference that the flotilla was inspired by the Palestinian people and the Palestinian "resistance."
The flotilla, according to Abukeshek, was a strategic decision to support the "resistance" and create the "basis for a global solidarity movement."
The flotilla was repeatedly emphasized as a nonviolent endeavor, though Abukeshek added that their purpose was not to tell Palestinians "about nonviolence or tell them what kind of resistance they have to choose."
Palestinians under occupation had a right to respond as they needed, said Abukeshek, arguing that "Palestine has been occupied for the last 78 years" and that "the basis of the Israeli state is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people."
The Israeli navy intercepted the first flotilla
While the Sunday flotilla was the largest ever, it was not the first attempt by activists to challenge Israel's maritime cordon around the Gaza Strip since the October 7 Massacre. The Handala stopped on July 26, and was preceded by the interdicting of the Madleen on June 9. Thunberg and Sumud committee organizer Yasemin Acar were detained during the June 9 blockade run and ultimately deported from the country.
Acar said at the Sunday press conference that she had been "attacked, kidnapped, and brought against our will to the Zionist entity."
Despite her detainment, Acar said the activists had promised at the time that "we would be back," adding that "today we are showing that we are going back."
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on August 11 in response to the announcement of the latest flotilla that the military was enforcing a security closure of the Gaza Strip and was ready for a variety of scenarios.
The organizers were joined by Cunningham, Spanish actor Eduard Fernandez and Irish comedian Tadhg Hickey.