Stop the war, break blockage

BARCELONA: A Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and pro-Palestinian activists, including environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg, departed Barcelona several hours after winds forced it to return to the Spanish port. Around 20 vessels left the Spanish city, aiming to "open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people" amid the Israeli war, said the Global Sumud Flotilla.

The activists from dozens of countries included Thunberg, Irish actor Liam Cunningham and Spain's Eduard Fernandez, as well as European lawmakers and public figures, including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau. The flotilla is expected to arrive in Gaza in mid-September and comes after Israel blocked two activist attempts to deliver aid to the devastated Palestinian territory by ship in June and July.

A protester shows her red-tainted hands during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, on September 6, 2025. Israel's retaliatory offensive to the 2023 Hamas attacks has killed at least 64,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures. Hamas also took 251 hostages.

A grandson of South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela said that he would join pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza with an aid boat from Tunisia. "We particularly chose, as the South African delegation, to join the Global Sumud Flotilla here in Tunisia from an African point to say: Africa is part of this struggle," Mandla Mandela told journalists in Tunis. "As Africans, we know very well what it means to live under occupation, under oppression," he said.

The Maghreb Sumud Flotilla will set sail on Sunday, organisers say, aiming to join other Gaza-bound boats that have already left from Spain and Italy. Initially scheduled for last Thursday, it was postponed due to bad weather, and organisers have yet to confirm the place and time of departure. Organisers have said about 100 activists have registered to join the flotilla from Tunis. — AFP