Gaza-bound activist boat welcomed in Tunisia

Members of the pro-Palestine activist group Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) arrived in Tunisia by boat earlier this week for one of its stops prior to reaching Gaza by the middle of September.

The group's arrival at Sidi Bou Said Port on Sunday was marked by a mass rally wherein more than 1,000 participants welcomed the so-called "aid boat," which also carried Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, The Times of Israel has reported.

Thunberg indicated the "genocide" in Gaza and the "mass starvation by Israel's murder machine" as the GSF's reasons for seeking to breach the maritime blockade of Gaza and deliver aid.

The GSF boat is scheduled to resume its voyage to Gaza later this week, by which time other vessels will have already arrived to accompany it the rest of the way.

The GSF claims that it is a "coordinated, non-violent fleet of mostly small vessels" that hopes to challenge Israel's "illegal siege on Gaza."

The flotilla's participants also include the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which already had two of its vessels intercepted and detained by Israeli forces for violating the blockade earlier this year.

The first instance was in June when the yacht Madleen was interdicted with Thunberg and 11 other people on board. The following month, the vessel Handala with 21 people embarked was prevented by the Israeli Navy from reaching Gaza.

The naval blockade around Gaza has been put in place by the Israeli Government as a means of preventing the smuggling of weapons for use by Palestinian terror group Hamas.