More than a thousand people lined the shore at Sidi Bou Said on Sunday as boats from Spain entered Tunisian waters, among them the Family Boat carrying Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Tunis was the flotilla’s final gathering place before the risky journey across the Mediterranean to Gaza.
The boats are attempting to take cargo, including medicine and infant milk, to the Palestinian territory, where attacks by Israel have killed more than 64 400 people since October 2023. Tel Aviv has faced growing criticism for the onslaught in retaliation to Hamas’s lethal attacks on southern Israel in October 2023 which left more than 1 000 people dead.
“We all know why we are here. Just across the water there’s a genocide going on, a mass starvation by Israel’s murder machine,” Thunberg told the crowd, accusing governments and corporations of enabling the atrocities and the global media of not holding those responsible to account.
“This is being carried out with the support of our governments, our elected leaders, our companies. End your complicity. Be human. Where is global media when it comes to holding war criminals to account? Journalists are being targeted and killed, risking their lives reporting about Gaza, yet too often their voices are silenced.”
Doctors, lawyers, activists, organisers and social media influencers are among those on the boats, the cargo of which also includes handwritten messages and gifts from Tunisian children to those under siege in Gaza.
The first fleet left Barcelona a week ago, followed soon after by another group from Genoa in Italy. A flotilla from Sicily is expected to dock in Tunis, where dozens of local boats will also join.
All the vessels will stay for two days to restock food and water before departing jointly on Wednesday, 10 September. From this North African port, the fleet will attempt to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
The Swedish activist spoke from a flotilla of boats carrying doctors, lawyers, activists, organisers and social media influencers attempting to take medicine and infant milk to Gaza
