Key Points
- Climate activist Greta Thunberg has joined a flotilla of aid boats aiming to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.
- Thousands gathered at Barcelona port to launch the ships, including Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham.
- Thunberg previously tried to break the blockade in June, but the ship was ultimately seized by Israeli forces.
An Australian citizen will join Greta Thunberg in the third attempt this year by activists to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver food and humanitarian supplies, departing on the Global Sumud Flotilla from Barcelona, Spain.
Abubakir Rafiq, an activist and content creator from Sydney, is travelling with the group.
"It's so loud and so hot", Rafiq said on board the flotilla, but praised the large crowd that came to see the flotilla off. "This is what solidarity looks like, it's insane", he said in a social media post.
Rafiq was previously involved in a pro-Palestinian encampment at The University of Sydney, a friend wrote on social media.
"He is like a little brother and I am deeply concerned for his wellbeing, but proud beyond all words to know him," his friend wrote.
The Global Sumud Flotilla departed from Barcelona to try to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory and bring humanitarian aid, food, water and medicine to Gaza. Source: AP / Emilio Morenatti
"In accordance with the Smartraveller travel advice, Australians should not join others seeking to break the naval blockade along the coast of Gaza," a spokesperson said in a statement.
"Previous attempts to break the blockade have resulted in death, injury, arrest or deportation of foreigners."
Thousands of supporters gathered at Barcelona's port to see off the boats, many of them waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine" and "It's not a war, it's a genocide".
"This is a mission to challenge the extremely violent, business-as-usual international system that is failing to uphold international law," Thunberg told the crowd before the departure of the flotilla of dozens of boats, set to be joined by more along the way.
Thunberg is among those on board alongside actors Susan Sarandon and Liam Cunningham, as well as activists, politicians and journalists.
Previous flotilla detained
In July, Australians Tan Safi and Robert Martin were among 21 pro-Palestinian activists detained on board the Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel trying to deliver aid to Gaza.
When they arrived back in Sydney, Safi and Martin showed bruises to reporters and alleged they were thrown around and strip-searched in Israeli detention.
Safi said the Israeli naval officers who boarded the ship were heavily armed, with some having four machine guns, and alleged they played "psychological games" with the activists on the 12-hour sail journey to Israel.
In a first for Israeli NGOs, rights groups B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel in July said they had concluded the war in Gaza amounts to a "genocide" against Palestinians. A spokesperson from the Israeli prime minister's office denounced the allegation, adding to its previous denials of genocide claims.
The International Court of Justice, in an interim ruling in early 2024 in a case lodged by South Africa, found it "plausible" the Israeli offensive had violated the United Nations Genocide Convention.
The Israeli government, backed by the United States, fiercely denies the charge and says it is fighting to defeat Hamas and to bring back Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
Thunberg tried to break Israel's longstanding naval blockade of Gaza by sailing to the territory in June with other activists. Israeli forces seized their small aid ship and they were deported from Israel.
Cunningham, best known for playing sailor knight Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones, joined Thunberg and several other prominent pro-Palestinian activists in a departure event for the ships in Barcelona.
Reflecting upon his support of the flotilla effort, Cunningham said: "When you do have a profile gifted to you, I think you've a responsibility to, to use that humanely. I need to be able to look in the mirror and say, at least I tried to do something. At least I tried to bring attention to what's going on. It's a purely human reason I'm here."
Israel has argued that the blockade imposed since 2007 is necessary to stop weapons being smuggled to Hamas and has described other attempts to break it — including Thunberg's in June — as a propaganda stunt in support of the militant group.
The enforcement of the blockade by Israeli forces has been infamous at times, with a raid by Israeli commandos on six civilian ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotillas in 2010, which resulted in 10 activists killed and nearly 30 wounded. Ten of the Israeli commandos were also injured.
A UN report said all activist deaths were caused by gunshots, finding the killing of at least six of the passengers "consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution".
Organisers of the Sumud flotilla blamed global leaders for failing to put pressure on Israel to allow aid to pass after a UN-backed global hunger monitor said part of Gaza was suffering from famine.
Israel describes widespread hunger documented by aid agencies as "a Hamas-orchestrated starvation campaign", with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating: "There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza."
The flotilla will be joined by more boats setting off from Greece, Italy and Tunisia, said Yasemin Acar, a member of the steering committee.
In the north-western Italian port of Genoa, some 250 tonnes of food for Gaza have been collected from local groups and residents, organisers said.
Some of the aid was loaded onto boats setting off from Genoa, while the rest will be sent to the Sicilian port of Catania, from where more vessels are due to depart for Gaza on 4 September.
