Huge crowds gathered at Tunisia’s port on Sunday to welcome Greta Thunberg as her aid flotilla, bound for Gaza, docked at the port.
The Swedish climate activist is travelling with 350 pro-Palestinian activists on boats stocked with aid that they are hoping to deliver to Palestinians in Gaza.
Pictures from the Sidi Bou Said port show hordes of people surrounding the 22-year-old as she addressed the crowd. “We all know why were are here,” she said. “Just across the water there’s a genocide going on, a mass starvation by Israel’s murder machine.”
Israel has repeatedly denied that there is starvation in Gaza and has blamed any hunger on Hamas and aid agency failures.
Last month a UN-backed body confirmed that there was famine in the territory and the UN’s humanitarian chief said it was the direct result of Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid entering Gaza.
French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan was at the port.
“The Palestinian cause is not in the hands of governments today. It is in the hearts of peoples everywhere,” she said, adding praise for those who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Flotilla organisers have said that the aim of their mission is to “break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza”, but the trip has not always been smooth sailing – a previous attempt in June was intercepted by Israeli forces.
This latest attempt started on Monday, when the flotilla of about 20 vessels set sail from Barcelona.
The group will now stay in Tunisia for a few days, before resuming the journey to Gaza, Reuters news agency reports.
“Some of the flotilla ships bound for Gaza has reached Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia, where it will be expanded, loaded with additional aid, and joined by the Tunisian team for the next stage of the mission,” the collective group of activists Global Sumud Flotilla wrote on X.
Israeli authorities have characterised Thunberg’s previous attempt to sail aid to Gaza as a publicity stunt that offered no real humanitarian assistance.
In March, it introduced a nearly three-month total blockade on supplies entering the Strip, claiming the aid was being taken by Hamas. It started allowing a limited amount of aid back into the territory after increasing international pressure.