Fierce winds force Gaza aid flotilla back to Barcelona
By AFP
September 1, 2025
Fierce Mediterranean winds forced a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg, to return to Barcelona, organisers said on Monday.
Around 20 vessels left the Spanish city on Sunday aiming to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people” amid the Israel-Hamas war, said the Global Sumud Flotilla — sumud being the Arabic term for “resilience”.
But “due to unsafe weather conditions, we conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass,” the organisation said in a statement, without specifying when exactly the boats returned to Barcelona.
“This meant delaying our departure to avoid risking complications with the smaller boats,” it added, citing gusts that exceeded 55 kilometres (34 miles) per hour.
“We made this decision to prioritize the safety and well-being of all participants and to safeguard the success of our mission.”
Spanish media reported that the organisers would meet to decide whether to resume the expedition later on Monday.
Among the activists from dozens of countries were Thunberg, actors Liam Cunningham of Ireland and Eduard Fernandez of Spain, as well as European lawmakers and public figures, including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.
The flotilla is expected to arrive in Gaza in mid-September and comes after Israel blocked two activist attempts to deliver aid to the devastated Palestinian territory by ship in June and July.
The United Nations has declared a famine in Gaza, warning that 500,000 people face “catastrophic” conditions.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, with 47 still held in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,459 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
By AFP
September 1, 2025
Fierce Mediterranean winds forced a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg, to return to Barcelona, organisers said on Monday.
Around 20 vessels left the Spanish city on Sunday aiming to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people” amid the Israel-Hamas war, said the Global Sumud Flotilla — sumud being the Arabic term for “resilience”.
But “due to unsafe weather conditions, we conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass,” the organisation said in a statement, without specifying when exactly the boats returned to Barcelona.
“This meant delaying our departure to avoid risking complications with the smaller boats,” it added, citing gusts that exceeded 55 kilometres (34 miles) per hour.
“We made this decision to prioritize the safety and well-being of all participants and to safeguard the success of our mission.”
Spanish media reported that the organisers would meet to decide whether to resume the expedition later on Monday.
Among the activists from dozens of countries were Thunberg, actors Liam Cunningham of Ireland and Eduard Fernandez of Spain, as well as European lawmakers and public figures, including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.
The flotilla is expected to arrive in Gaza in mid-September and comes after Israel blocked two activist attempts to deliver aid to the devastated Palestinian territory by ship in June and July.
The United Nations has declared a famine in Gaza, warning that 500,000 people face “catastrophic” conditions.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, with 47 still held in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,459 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry which the UN considers reliable.
Gaza aid flotilla ‘should not have to exist’ says Thunberg
By AFP
August 30, 2025
'It should not have to be up to us,' Thunberg told AFPTV
By AFP
August 30, 2025
'It should not have to be up to us,' Thunberg told AFPTV
- Copyright AFP Stefano RELLANDINI
Aid flotillas like the one preparing to leave for Gaza would not be necessary if governments upheld international law, rights activist Greta Thunberg told AFP Saturday.
“It should not have to be up to us,” said the 22-year-old Swedish campaigner, who will join the flotilla when it sets off from Barcelona on Sunday.
“A mission like this should not have to exist,” she added.
“It is the responsibility of countries, of our governments and elected officials to act to try to uphold international law, to prevent war crimes, to prevent genocide,” she said.
“That is their legal duty to do. And they are failing to do so. And thereby betraying Palestinians but also all of humanity.”
The latest aid expedition towards Gaza is organised by a group called the Global Sumud Flotilla, which describes itself as an “independent” organisation. Sumud is the Arab word for perseverance.
“Our aim is to get to Gaza, to deliver the humanitarian aid, announce the opening of a humanitarian corridor and then bring more aid, and then thus also ending, breaking Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza,” said Thunberg.
Two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July, were blocked by Israel.
Troops boarded their vessels and detained the activists, bringing them ashore in Israel before expelling them. Thunberg was among the 12 activists on board the June flotilla and was deported.
The organisers of this latest flotilla have not said exactly when they are setting off, nor how many boats will leave from Barcelona.
The UN on August 22 declared a famine in Gaza, blaming Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid, sparking furious denials from the Israeli authorities.
Aid flotillas like the one preparing to leave for Gaza would not be necessary if governments upheld international law, rights activist Greta Thunberg told AFP Saturday.
“It should not have to be up to us,” said the 22-year-old Swedish campaigner, who will join the flotilla when it sets off from Barcelona on Sunday.
“A mission like this should not have to exist,” she added.
“It is the responsibility of countries, of our governments and elected officials to act to try to uphold international law, to prevent war crimes, to prevent genocide,” she said.
“That is their legal duty to do. And they are failing to do so. And thereby betraying Palestinians but also all of humanity.”
The latest aid expedition towards Gaza is organised by a group called the Global Sumud Flotilla, which describes itself as an “independent” organisation. Sumud is the Arab word for perseverance.
“Our aim is to get to Gaza, to deliver the humanitarian aid, announce the opening of a humanitarian corridor and then bring more aid, and then thus also ending, breaking Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza,” said Thunberg.
Two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July, were blocked by Israel.
Troops boarded their vessels and detained the activists, bringing them ashore in Israel before expelling them. Thunberg was among the 12 activists on board the June flotilla and was deported.
The organisers of this latest flotilla have not said exactly when they are setting off, nor how many boats will leave from Barcelona.
The UN on August 22 declared a famine in Gaza, blaming Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid, sparking furious denials from the Israeli authorities.
"Our boats carry more than aid. They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
An activist waves a Palestinian flag from the bow of a Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel en route to Gaza.
(Photo: Tan Safi/Freedom Flotilla Coalition)
Brett Wilkins
Aug 29, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Palestine defenders are preparing for the latest—and largest—Freedom Flotilla Coalition mission to set sail for Gaza in an attempt to break Israel's US-backed genocidal siege on the embattled Palestinian territory.
Dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from as many as 44 nations are set to take part in the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means "perseverance" in Arabic—as it attempts to run Israel's naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to the starving people of Gaza.
"We are a coalition of everyday people—organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers—who believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action," Global Sumud Flotilla's website explains.
In addition to "everyday people," flotilla participants include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, American actress Susan Sarandon, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, leftist Portuguese parliamentarian Mariana Mortágua, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Israel "is starving and killing the people of Gaza," Mandela—whose grandfather was not only a hero of his country's anti-apartheid struggle but also a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation—said Friday on behalf of the South African flotilla delegation. "We are a diverse group of international activists calling for urgent global action to compel Israel to open Gaza's borders to aid and end its genocide of the Palestinian people.
"We ask that South Africans of conscience join us," he added. South Africa is leading an ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that is officially or informally supported by around two dozen nations.
Colau said earlier this week that "to end the genocide in Gaza is the duty of all of us, so we have to do what is in our power to do it if governments, including the government of Spain, do not do what they can to stop the criminal state of Israel."
Spain has joined the ICJ genocide case against Israel, has formally recognized Palestinian statehood and urged other nations to do so, and has taken significant steps toward an arms embargo on Israel.
"Although Spain has positioned itself more than other governments and recognized the Palestinian state, words are not enough when thousands of children are being killed," Colau said Friday in an interview with RTE.
At least 18,500 children are among the more than 63,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023—although the official Gaza Health Ministry figures are likely a vast undercount, according to peer-reviewed studies.
"This is my third attempt to try to sail with humanitarian aid to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza and open up a humanitarian corridor," Thunberg, who is a member of the flotilla steering committee, told Middle East Eye Thursday.
"There have been 38 previous attempts just for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and now with the Global Sumud Flotilla," Thunberg continued. "This is unprecedented. We are mobilizing people from all over the world with dozens of boats sailing from Barcelona first, and then more boats joining us from other ports around the Mediterranean Sea."
"We are doing this because we are facing a genocide," she added. "We are seeing people being deliberately deprived of their basic means to sustain life. And this is a continuation of the suffocating oppression that Palestinians have been living under for decades, and we simply have no choice if we have any sense of humanity left, we cannot just sit by and watch this unfolding."
The Gaza Famine—officially declared last week by the authoritative Integrated Food Security Phase Classification—has claimed at least hundreds of Palestinian lives in what experts say is an engineered effort by Israel. The International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who ordered the "complete siege" on Gaza fueling the famine, list forced starvation, along with murder, as alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the pair.
Earlier this year, the FFC vessels Conscience, Madleen, and Handala each separately tried to break the blockade but were thwarted by Israeli forces in international waters, an apparent violation of maritime law. Flotilla activists were beaten, kidnapped, jailed, interrogated, and deported by Israel.
Fifteen years ago, Israeli forces raided one of the first FFC convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
The Sumud Flotilla comes as Israeli forces ramp up Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Gaza backed by the administration of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich proposed the systematic annexation of Gaza over the coming months if Hamas keeps fighting, as well as the implementation of Trump's plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian exclave and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Israel's siege of Gaza has been in effect in varying degrees of severity since 2006 in response to Hamas' rise to power in the strip.
"The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger," a senior adviser to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the time.
Now Palestinians are dying of hunger, and the world has increasingly had enough.
"Our boats carry more than aid," Global Sumud Flotilla said. "They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
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