A European Commission spokesperson, Eva Hrncirova, accused the flotilla of boats crossing the Mediterranean to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, breaking the Israeli siege, of “potentially escalating the situation” this Monday.

“We do not encourage flotillas like this because they can basically escalate the situation and can also put their participants at risk,” she stated. She added that the European Union believes that “the best way” to deliver humanitarian aid would be through partner organisations working on the ground. The Commission official did not specify how this would function in the current context where international humanitarian organisations are prevented from working, leaving only one organisation controlled by the occupier, where starvation deaths caused by the Zionist war continue to increase and where civilians seeking food are sometimes murdered by Israeli troops.

She further stated: “what we are trying to do is persuade the Israeli authorities not to impose obstacles and not to impose any logistical or registration problems on our humanitarian partners. We are trying to increase the number of lorries reaching Gaza and, mainly, we are trying to end the suffering of the population in Gaza”, this should be done “by keeping channels with Israel open and speaking with the Israeli authorities,” she said.

Meanwhile, the boats that departed from Barcelona arrived during Sunday night and early Monday morning at the port of Sidi Bou Said, approximately 20 kilometres from Tunisia’s capital, where they were received with celebration.

Many of the activists will remain on the boats to prevent any sabotage attempts, but others came ashore and a demonstration is planned at the entrance of the United States embassy in Tunis to denounce the US government’s complicity with the genocide.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg was among those who disembarked, directing her intervention to Western governments: “end your complicity with this genocide, be human,” she stated.

Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist, emphasised on the same occasion that the number of boats and people participating in this attempt to break the Israeli siege is greater than the sum of those who participated in previous attempts and that it is in harmony with a “global uprising” against the genocide being witnessed worldwide.

Whilst sailing to meet them, activists from the Sicily component will conduct a symbolic moment, conceived as “an act of love and a shared moment of mourning” during which they will read the names of children killed in Gaza by the Israeli occupier.