rallies in Spain Israel halted flotilla

Madrid (dpa) — Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Spain against the Israeli navy’s violent halt of the Gaza aid flotilla, state broadcaster RTVE and other Spanish media reported on Thursday.

Participants at rallies in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and other cities nationwide accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The European Union was accused of being partly responsible for Israel’s actions and many demanded a severance of relations with Israel. “If they attack the flotilla, they attack us all,” stated a manifesto read out in front of the Foreign Ministry in Madrid, RTVE reported.

The rallies came after Israeli special forces boarded around 40 boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla and detained more than 400 crew members from dozens of countries, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Israel intends to deport the pro-Palestinian activists.

The group which organized the rallies accused Israel of breaching international law and committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. A “peaceful, non-violent convoy that was supposed to bring food, baby formula and medicine” to the Gaza Strip was violently and illegally stopped in international waters and the participants were “abducted,” according to a statement the organizers shared on Telegram. Supporters on X referred to it as “piracy.”

The trigger for the war in the Gaza Strip was the massacre committed in Israel by Palestinian Islamists Hamas and other extremists, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others were taken hostage to Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Israel’s overwhelming response has reduced the strip to rubble and killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to the health authority controlled by Hamas, in figures seen as credible by the UN.