Overview

• About 20 boats with delegations from roughly 44 countries left Spanish ports carrying food, water and medicine, with additional vessels due to depart from Tunisia and Italy this week.
• High-profile participants include Greta Thunberg, Susan Sarandon, Liam Cunningham, former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau and Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortágua.
• The convoy targets a mid-September approach to Gaza, framing the voyage as nonviolent; volunteers trained for peaceful resistance and signed strict codes of conduct.
• Israel’s military says it will enforce the naval blockade and notes aid is entering through existing channels, after intercepting flotillas in June and July and detaining then deporting participants.
• The effort follows the UN’s famine declaration for Gaza and reports of hundreds of malnutrition deaths, as aid groups warn of catastrophic hunger and Israel intensifies operations in Gaza City.