Gaza Flotilla Sails from Barcelona to Challenge Zionist Blockade

The vessels, draped in Palestinian flags, left the Spanish port at 19:00 local time on Monday after stormy weather forced a delay the previous day.

Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said their mission was to “break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza” and expose the brutality of the Zionist regime, which has repeatedly attacked aid ships to keep the enclave starved of essential goods.

The operation is being launched in two stages, with the Barcelona fleet joined by a second wave expected to depart from Tunis on September 4. Activists plan to unite in the Mediterranean before attempting to reach Gaza within a week.

“We are sailing again to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor,” Thunberg declared in a video message, stressing determination to defy Israeli obstruction.

British punk singer Bob Vylan, known for leading chants of “death to the IDF” at Glastonbury, praised the participants as “brave individuals” taking on a mission that governments had long failed to undertake.

Tel Aviv has dismissed similar efforts as publicity stunts, despite the UN confirming famine conditions in parts of Gaza after Israel imposed a near-total blockade in March. Only under heavy international pressure did the regime allow a trickle of aid in late May.

Aid groups have condemned Israel’s attempt to control aid deliveries through its so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, describing it as a tool to manipulate and weaponize relief.

Israeli forces already intercepted a yacht carrying Thunberg and other activists in June, seizing the symbolic aid and deporting them after escorting the vessel to Ashdod.

The Zionist entity has a bloody record of attacking aid convoys, most infamously in 2010 when its commandos stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, killing 10 activists in cold blood.