Humanitarian Fleet Carrying Aid Towards Gaza Returns To Barcelona Due To Bad Weather

Global Sumud Flotilla is preparing humanitarian assistance to be brought to Gaza. (Twitter/@GlobalSumudF)

JAKARTA - The Global humanitarian Fleet of Sumud Flotilla, which consists of dozens of ships sailing towards the Gaza Strip, Palestine with humanitarian assistance and pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli activists, returned to ports in Barcelona, Spain due to bad weather, organizers said.

"We conducted sea trials and then returned to the port to let the storm pass. This means we postponed our departure to avoid the risk of complications with smaller ships," the Fleet Mission of Sumud Global said in a statement, adding wind speed had reached around 35 mph, quoted from The Times of Israel September 1.

The organizers did not say when they were planning to continue the journey.

The maritime convoy departing from the Spanish port city on Sunday consisted of about 20 ships and delegates from 44 countries, claimed to be the biggest attempt to date try and break the blockade in Gaza.

Activist Greta Thunberg was among a number of activists who joined the humanitarian fleet this time. Their ship departed Barcelona on Sunday.

"It is a mission to challenge an international system that is very harsh and as usual, which fails to enforce international law," Thunberg told crowds before the departure of a fleet of dozens of ships, which would be followed by other ships along the way.

Earlier, the Swedish activist tried to break through Israel's long-running marine blockade in Gaza in June, before the Israeli military ambushed at sea, leading the ship to ports before deporting activists.

Organizers blamed world leaders for failing to pressure Israel into allowing aid after global hunger monitors said some Gazaan territories were suffering from starvation.

The fleet will join more ships departing from Greece, Italy and Tunisia, said Yasemin Acar, a member of the steering committee.

At Genoa port in northwestern Italy, about 250 metric tons of food for Gaza have been collected from groups and local residents, organizers said.

Part of the aid was loaded aboard a ship departing from Genoa on Sunday, while the rest will be sent to Catania Harbor in Sicily, where other ships will depart for Gaza on September 4.

Israel argues the blockade imposed since 2007 is necessary to stop arms smuggling into the Hamas militant group and calls other attempts to break it down - including what Thunberg did in June - as a propaganda act to support Hamas.