Poor weather forces Gaza aid flotilla to return to Barcelona

MADRID: A flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists on more than 20 boats returned to the Spanish city of Barcelona on Monday after meeting bad weather, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.

“Due to unsafe weather conditions, we conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass,” the flotilla’s organisers posted on Instagram.

The Global Sumud Flotilla had left the city’s port on Sunday.

A spokesman told Spain’s El País newspaper that the voyage would resume on Monday evening if possible.

The Global Sumud Flotilla aims to breach the Israeli sea blockade of the Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aid to the population. “Sumud” means steadfastness in Arabic.

Its organisers say that it is the largest action of its kind to date.

The activists aboard include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who participated in a similar voyage aboard the Madleen earlier this year.

Israeli troops boarded the vessel 200km off the coast on June 9 and took it to Ashdod, an Israeli port to the north of the Gaza Strip.

Thunberg and other activists were then deported.

Israel has in the past thwarted a number of attempts to breach its sea blockade.

An attempt by an Italian vessel in July was also prevented.

On its website, the Global Sumud Flotilla says its goal along with partner organisations is “to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Dozens of boats will converge on Gaza, it says.

– Bernama-dpa

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

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