Gaza aid flotilla braces for blockade as vessels approach

ROME/ATHENS: Several unidentified vessels were seen approaching the international flotilla — Global Sumud Flotilla — trying to deliver aid to Gaza on Wednesday night, two sources on board told Reuters.

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It was not clear who operated the vessels. Their approach comes hours after the flotilla said that Israeli “warships” approached some of its boats and engaged in “dangerous and intimidatory manoeuvres” before dawn on Wednesday as it neared the Palestinian territory.

Earlier, Israel’s embassy in Italy issued an ominous warning in a post on X, saying “some participants seem intent on provoking”.

“We hope that such actions do not lead to incidents and that everything concludes peacefully,” it added.

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“They are already coming for us. Two dozen vessels are waiting for us,” Jose Luis Ybot, a passenger on the flotilla, said in a video posted on social media.

Two other passengers, including Juan Bordera, a regional lawmaker from Spain’s Compromis party, confirmed the boats’ approach. One said that around two dozen vessels were coming and that the flotilla could be intercepted within the hour.

Israel has said it will use any means to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza, arguing that its naval blockade is legal as it battles Hamas in the coastal enclave.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023 attack in which it has killed over 65,000 people in
Gaza, Gaza health authorities say, and left many in dire need of food and aid.

MELONI’S ADVICE

Earlier, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an ideological ally of Donald Trump, urged the Gaza aid flotilla to stop to avoid jeopardising the US president’s plan to end the Gaza war.

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The Global Sumud Flotilla, which includes Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and several Italian lawmakers among its participants, aims to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory and deliver vital aid to its population, who the UN says are suffering from widespread starvation.

But Meloni — whose government has dispatched a frigate to provide the flotilla with protection — warned the “hope” represented by Trump’s plan, unveiled at the White House on Monday, “rests on a fragile balance which many people would be happy to destroy”.

“I fear that the flotilla’s attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade could serve as a pretext to do so,” the far-right leader said in a statement.