Activists prepare to defy Israeli naval blockade of Gaza
Peace activists from several countries are setting out on a converted trawler to defy an Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“The purpose of this mission is to send a message that civil society is not OK with what’s happening in Gaza,” Fellipe Lopes, the Portuguese media coordinator of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on board the ship Handala told Reuters during a stopover in Malta.
It will be a trip fraught with danger. Israeli forces killed nine activists when they stopped and boarded another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010.
“We expect to encounter resistance throughout our mission,” said Australian activist Michael Coleman.
“Ours is not an illegal activity in any shape or form. The International Court of Justice has asked them to grant unfettered access to aid into Gaza and I implore them to let us and other aids through immediately,” he said.
The trip along the Eastern Mediterranean to Gaza will take a week but organisers said they might stop over in another harbour on the way.
Witnesses describe carnage of Israeli attack on Jabalia
At least 46 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, including at least seven killed by Israeli air attacks that hit residential buildings in Gaza’s largest refugee camp in Jabalia.
A medic who responded to the attacks found that his family members had been killed in their building.
“I came to see the upper three floors toppled over my family. My father, mother and sister were killed; a second sister and uncle are still missing and we are still searching for them,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif.
Al-Sharif reported that the attack had strewn body parts around the area and that rescuers had been unable to retrieve the body of a dead man dangling from the wreckage of the building.
“This is a residential building, as you can see. It was hit by missiles without any warning. Dozens were killed and injured. We hurriedly came over to see those appalling images,” one man told Al Jazeera. “Look at that body hanging from the wall. This defies humanity. May God punish all those responsible.”
A member of Gaza’s civil defence told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces hit residential buildings with a wave of missiles.
“As a result, large numbers of women and children were killed or injured. Many are still buried under the debris,” he said.
“Our teams are finding it difficult to recover the dead; as you can see some of the victims’ bodies are stuck and remain hanging on the walls.”