Global Sumud Flotilla Sets Sail From Genoa and Barcelona With Greta Thunberg Aboard

A new civilian flotilla, the Global Sumud Flotilla, set sail on Sunday to break the Gaza blockade, with Greta Thunberg aboard, and it planned to weigh anchor from various European ports beginning August 31 to reach Gaza and attempt to deliver humanitarian aid.

Le Figaro said more than 300 activists were to depart, with dozens of boats and crews from 44 countries aboard, and it reported that the first vessels set sail on Sunday from the ports of Genoa and Barcelona.

Al Jazeera

The same report said the flotilla would attempt to bypass the naval blockade imposed by Israel to deliver aid to Gaza's population and to end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, according to the initiative's website.

Le Figaro also reported that the steering committee included American actress Susan Sarandon, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, and Irish actor Liam Cunningham, and it described Thunberg as having previously tried to break the Gaza siege with the Madleen mission.

In a video posted on August 4 on Instagram, Mustafa Cakici, the international coordinator of the French delegation, said, "We absolutely must deliver humanitarian aid, because what is being provided today is not at all enough," adding that Israel must respect international law.

Jean-François Corty, outlining Doctors of the World’s interventions in Gaza and in other regions affected by conflicts and health inequalities, said he received a letter from the Israeli authorities stating that the organization would be expelled because it did not provide the lists of its staff in Gaza.

Corty told Le Courrier de l'Atlas, "We have no obligation to hand over our teams’ lists to an occupying force; that does not fit within the framework of international law," and he said the issue was a "dynamic of silencing" in a context where international journalists are still not allowed to enter.

Al-Jazeera Net

He said that with the departure of organizations including MSF and others, "hundreds of thousands of general medical consultations and tens of thousands of surgeries will stop," and he warned that the result would be deaths that occur slowly.

Le Courrier de l'Atlas reported that Corty said, "So today we accept that there will be deaths by slow burn," while also describing that one million Palestinians are in a situation of food insecurity and that projections warn that 100,000 children will be malnourished by April.

The same interview said the organization provides 40% of what remains of the Gaza Strip’s health system with 36 other organizations involved, while Corty said it operates six clinics and conducts thousands of general medical consultations per week.

Al-Jazeera Net described Gaza’s health system as facing an escalating humanitarian catastrophe as the blockade tightens and crossings remain closed, depriving thousands of patients and the wounded of their right to travel abroad for treatment.

“The health system in the Gaza Strip faces an escalating humanitarian catastrophe as the blockade tightens and crossings remain closed, depriving thousands of patients and the wounded of their right to travel abroad for treatment”

Al-Jazeera Net

In a report by Ghazi Al-Awlol, the outlet said the health ministry sounded the alarm again, confirming that Israeli restrictions on travel and the flow of medicines and medical supplies have become a "slow-death sentence" for those in critical condition.

At a press conference held by health ministry officials near the rubble of buildings surrounding the Shifa Medical Complex, Dr. Mohammad Zaqout, the General Director of Hospitals in Gaza, said that the number of the wounded and patients in urgent need and capable of traveling outside the territory had reached 17,730 medical transfers.

Al-Jazeera Net added that very urgent cases exceed 3,300 transfers requiring immediate medical intervention to save their lives, and it reported that the general director of hospitals accused the Israeli occupation authorities of deliberate and unwarranted obstinacy in handling the humanitarian medical file.

The report also included Hamada’s statement, "I want to be treated, it is my right to be treated," as it described long, exhausting queues of waiting for the unknown behind closed crossings.