By Mehmet Emin Caliskan and Dilara Senkaya
MARMARIS, Turkey, May 14 (Reuters) – Ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail for a third time on Thursday from southern Turkey, after earlier attempts to deliver aid to Gaza were intercepted by Israel in international waters.
The flotilla had previously departed from Spain on April 12, but Israeli forces intercepted vessels in the group, taking more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists to Crete and detaining two others in Israel.
Activists on the flotilla departing from the Turkish port of Marmaris said the flotilla needed to reach Gaza to provide much-needed aid to the enclave at a time when global attention had shifted elsewhere, including to the impact of the Iran war.
“It’s very important that what’s happening around the world is not allowing us to see Gaza for the situation as it is,” said Susan Abdullah, a member of the flotilla’s steering committee. “The blockade is still on. The aid is not coming in.”
Katy Davidson, an activist from the British delegation on the flotilla, said the group had previously been intercepted between Sicily and Crete. She criticised the response of the British government, which she said “did nothing”.
Davidson added that even if the flotilla failed to reach Gaza, any interception would still help draw attention to the situation.
Turkish activist Seyma Denli Yalvac said limited media coverage would not deter the group.
“Even if no channel reports on us, it doesn’t matter. We will continue on our path,” Yalvac told Reuters.
Pro-Palestinian activists say Israel and the U.S. wrongly conflate their advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for Hamas militants.
Last October Israel’s military halted a previous flotilla assembled by the same organisation, arresting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and more than 450 participants.
Palestinians and international aid bodies, along with Turkey and a number of other countries, say supplies reaching Gaza are still insufficient, despite a ceasefire reached in October that included guarantees of increased aid.
Most of Gaza’s more than 2 million people have been displaced, many now living in bombed-out homes and makeshift tents pitched on open ground, roadsides, or atop the ruins of destroyed buildings.
Israel, which controls all access to the Gaza Strip, denies withholding supplies for its residents.
(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Editing by William Maclean)
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