MADRID (Reuters) -A flotilla of dozens of boats loaded with aid for Gaza departed Barcelona port on Monday evening after stormy weather forced them to return to port earlier, Reuters footage showed. Some of the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission blew their horns as they left the port. “Free, free Palestine,” shouted some […]
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Aid flotilla for Gaza departs Barcelona after stormy weather turnaround
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MADRID (Reuters) -A flotilla of dozens of boats loaded with aid for Gaza departed Barcelona port on Monday evening after stormy weather forced them to return to port earlier, Reuters footage showed.
Some of the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission blew their horns as they left the port.
“Free, free Palestine,” shouted some activists at the port.
Pro-Palestinian activists including climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham are on the flotilla of several dozen boats that is aiming to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver food and humanitarian supplies to the enclave, which has been devastated by nearly two years of war.
Israel has argued that the naval blockade it imposed in 2007 is necessary to stop weapons being smuggled to the Hamas Palestinian militant group. It has described other attempts to break it – including one that included Thunberg in June – as a propaganda stunt in support of Hamas.
(Reporting by Charlie Devereux. Additional reporting by Emma PinedoEditing by Andrei Khalip, Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler)