Watan-A ship from the Freedom Flotilla, carrying Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and others, is set to depart from Italy to Gaza on Sunday to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, according to an Italian politician who spoke to AFP.
The vessel will leave from the port city of Catania in Sicily with around 10 people on board, “including Greta Thunberg,” said Marco Grimaldi, a representative from the Greens and Left Alliance—a leftist bloc that provided logistical and administrative support for the mission.
Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan Join Freedom Flotilla to Gaza
The “Freedom Flotilla,” founded in 2010, is an international nonviolent movement advocating solidarity with Palestinians and opposing the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Grimaldi told AFP the ship “raises the flag of public opinion, and we’re trying to amplify that voice.”
Journalist Andrea Ligniè, one of the passengers on the sailing ship Madeleine, wrote that the vessel carries “juice, milk, rice, canned goods, and protein bars donated by hundreds of residents from Catania.”
Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament, announced Thursday she would be on board, stating the mission had multiple goals: “to denounce the humanitarian blockade, the ongoing genocide, and Israel’s impunity, while raising international awareness.”
Thunberg, known for her climate protests in Sweden, had originally planned to sail to Gaza in early May aboard a Freedom Flotilla ship, but that vessel was sabotaged en route. Activists suspect the damage was caused by an Israeli drone.
Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on March 2, halting all humanitarian aid entry just days before resuming its military offensive after a fragile two-month truce with Hamas.
Although Israeli authorities have since allowed limited aid into the Strip, the UN warns that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine, describing the permitted aid deliveries as “a drop in the ocean.”
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