Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and other activists will set sail Sunday for Gaza on a ship aimed at protesting Israel’s war in the territory, a French-Palestinian lawmaker said.
The trip is organized by the Freedom Flotilla coalition, which for more than a decade has sent ships to the coastal enclave in declared opposition to Israeli blockades there.
Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member taking part in the new trip, said the operation had “several aims: to condemn the humanitarian blockade and ongoing genocide, the impunity granted to the state of Israel and raise international awareness.”
On March 2, amid the ongoing war, Israel imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid in an effort to weaken and put pressure on the Hamas terror group, which continues to hold 58 hostages, 20 to 23 of whom are believed to be alive. Over the last week, Israel has begun to lift the blockade, as it implements a new distribution mechanism meant to prevent the aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
Another Freedom Flotilla ship was blocked in Turkey last month after Guinea-Bisseau withdrew its flag, and the vessel was later struck by armed drones, according to its organizers.
The Saudi Al Arabiya news channel reported, citing a Western security source, that the Hamas terror group was behind that flotilla, and that those onboard planned to engage Israeli forces upon approaching the Gaza shore.
Hassan, an outspoken figure for the French left-wing party LFI, has previously called Israel a “terrorist” state and accused its military of having “coldly executed Palestinian children,” while advocating for it to “leave Palestine.”
She was due to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank in February with a European Parliament delegation, but was refused entry to Israel.
Thunberg, who rose to fame organizing teen climate protests in her native Sweden, was due to board the previous Flotilla ship, but did not after it was damaged in the alleged drone attack.
Hassan said on social media that to “guarantee our security, and also the success of our [new] mission, we need maximum mobilization by the public for this initiative.”
In May 2010, another, much-remembered “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” organized by the same coalition was intercepted by the Israeli Navy.
After the convoy refused orders to reroute to Ashdod, Israeli commandos boarded one of the ships, the Mavi Marmara, which was carrying over 600 passengers. After being met with violent resistance, the commandos opened fire, killing 10 Turkish activists. Ten Israeli soldiers were wounded during the attack.
A blockade on Gaza was imposed by Israel in 2007, shortly after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave, and enforced in cooperation with neighboring Egypt to prevent the terror group from building up its military force.
Despite the blockade, Hamas managed to acquire weaponry and funding, thanks mainly to Iranian and Qatari support, and to fire rockets at Israeli towns and cities on a regular basis, causing skirmishes that on repeated occasions escalated into protracted conflict.
Hamas’s attacks culminated in its October 7 onslaught on southern Israel, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst through the border and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.