Gaza Aid Flotilla Sets Sail From Sicily

ROME, April 27 (Bernama-dpa) -- Activists from several countries set sail from Sicily towards the Gaza Strip on Sunday on dozens of ships carrying civilian aid, German Press Agency (dpa) reported. 

After a weather-related delay, 56 ships departed from a port near Syracuse, the Global Sumud Flotilla said, describing its aid campaign as the largest flotilla ever to have attempted to reach the Gaza Strip.

The pro-Palestinian activists are again seeking to breach the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip that has been in place since 2007 to bring aid supplies to the densely populated area levelled by two years of intense bombardment. 

The declared aim of the Global Sumud Flotilla is also to advance the establishment of a permanent humanitarian corridor.

Israel has consistently blocked attempts by activists to breach the naval blockade off the sealed-off coastal strip. 

In a previous attempt last year, a Global Sumud Flotilla collective of private sailboats and motorboats was stormed by Israeli special forces and prevented from reaching the area.

According to the organisation, the ships that have now set off plan to rendezvous at sea with several more boats that departed from other countries and then continue east. 

The flotilla is being accompanied by a ship from the Spanish aid organisation Open Arms and by the Arctic Sunrise from the environmental group Greenpeace. 

-- BERNAMA-dpa