{"id":79766,"date":"2016-09-19T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=79766"},"modified":"2016-09-16T19:42:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T18:42:39","slug":"gaza-bound-flotilla-sails-off-from-spains-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/gaza-bound-flotilla-sails-off-from-spains-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza-Bound Flotilla Sails Off from Spain’s Barcelona"},"content":{"rendered":"

International activists on two boats carrying food and medicine aim to break Israeli siege on Palestinian territory.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>

Two boats, Amal and Zaytouna, will have 11 women on board each [Courtesy: Rumbo a Gaza]<\/p><\/div>\n

15 Sep 2016 – <\/em>A new flotilla of international activists has left for the Gaza Strip from the Spanish city of Barcelona, hoping to break a nearly decade-long Israeli blockade.<\/p>\n

Two sailing boats, Amal and Zaytouna, with 11 women on board each, sailed off on Wednesday evening under the banner “The Women’s Boat to Gaza”.<\/p>\n

The passengers, including Swedish European Parliament Member Malin Bjork and Dr Fouzia Hassan of Malaysia, aim to reach Gaza by early October.<\/p>\n

“We are carrying food and medicine on the boat that will be distributed to Gazans upon arrival,” Zohar Chamberlain Regev, a spokeswoman of the initiative, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

“But mainly we are carrying a message of hope and solidarity, because we think Gazans want that most of all.”<\/p>\n

She said she had high hopes that the flotilla would not be stopped by the Israeli navy and reach the destination.<\/p>\n

“We know that we are not a threat to Israel. We are not heading to an Israeli port so they have no reason to stop us,” she said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Gaza-bound flotilla vessel seized by Israeli navy <\/a><\/p>\n

The blockade has been in place since 2007 when Hamas took control of Gaza.<\/p>\n

Last time the Women’s Boat to Gaza attempted to deliver aid<\/a> to the territory in 2015, the Israeli navy boarded and took over its vessel, Marianne. The boat was taken to the Israeli city of Ashdod.<\/p>\n

In 2010,\u00a0a similar bid<\/a> to break the blockade by a Turkish flotilla resulted in the killing of 10 activists by Israeli commandos, and\u00a0caused a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Israel.<\/p>\n

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently described<\/a> the blockade as “a collective punishment for which there must be accountability.<\/p>\n

“The closure of Gaza suffocates its people, stifles its economy and impedes reconstruction efforts,” he said during a visit to the Palestinian territory in June.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new flotilla of international activists has left for the Gaza Strip from the Spanish city of Barcelona, hoping to break a nearly decade-long Israeli blockade. Two sailing boats with 11 women on board each sailed off on Wednesday [14 Sep] under the banner “The Women’s Boat to Gaza”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}