Overview

• At least 20 vessels carrying food, water and medicine left Barcelona, with hundreds on board from delegations across 44 countries.
• Additional boats are slated to depart from Italy, Greece and Tunisia in the coming days to join for a planned mid-September approach to Gaza.
• Greta Thunberg, actors Liam Cunningham and Susan Sarandon, and public figures including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau are participating.
• Israel’s military said it enforces the Gaza naval blockade and is prepared for a range of responses, after stopping sea missions in June and July and deporting activists.
• The mission follows a UN-backed famine declaration in Gaza and warnings that roughly 500,000 people face catastrophic hunger.