israel-prepares-to-block-gaza-bound-aid-ship

Israel has announced plans to block a ship carrying international activists and aid heading to Gaza, as they attempt to break the blockade amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The Israeli military reported that the Israeli Navy is preparing for the arrival of the Madleen, a sailboat launched from Sicily as part of the Gaza flotilla campaign. The boat is attempting to “break the naval blockade”, reports said. 

 

The ship is carrying 12 crew members. The ship (Freedom Flotilla) has set sail for Gaza to break the Israeli blockade. The vessel defies Israel’s blockade as part of the Freedom Flotilla, carrying urgent supplies to Gaza and calling for global action against collective punishment. 

 

The Freedom Flotilla coalition (FFC), which organised the mission, said in a statement that Madleen is a civilian ship “carrying humanitarian aid and international human rights defenders in direct defiance of Israel’s illegal and genocidal blockade”. Passengers include volunteers from several nations, such as French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan. The ship is transporting urgently required supplies for Gaza’s civilian population, including food for infants and newborn babies, flour, rice, nappies, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics. 

 

Also Read: Firing on civilians: Gaza dismisses Israeli video

 

“This is a peaceful act of civil resistance,” the FFC said. “All volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence.” The ship is expected to arrive on Gaza’s coastline in roughly a week, though it faces increased risk of being intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters. 

 

Meanwhile, the Gaza media office has alleged that Israel is using starvation as a weapon to displace Gaza’s 2.2 million population. The Israeli war on Gaza has killed more than 54,470 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while estimates suggest that more than 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under the rubble of annihilated homes, as per official reports. International experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.