DOZENS of boats carrying activists and aid for Palestinians in Gaza set sail from the Spanish city of Barcelona yesterday.

Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say that more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world will participate, with campaigners saying it’s the biggest civilian-led mobilisation of its kind against Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory.

Nearly 40 boats were leaving Barcelona while the rest will join the fleet from other ports along the Mediterranean as they sail eastward, according to Thiago Avila, one of the flotilla’s leaders who spoke at a news conference in Barcelona on Sunday during a symbolic send-off event. 

“We sail because governments have failed,” said Saif Abukeshek, a Palestinian activist and member of the flotilla’s global steering committee.

“They want a society that feels helpless, that cannot act, that cannot mobilise,” Mr Abukeshek said on Sunday. “We refuse to be that society.”

Last week, Gaza marked six months since a ceasefire ended the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas-led militants. However Israeli attacks have killed more than 700 people in the six months since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Much of the ceasefire work remains to be done, including disarming Hamas.

The BBC reported yesterday that Hamas has rejected plans for its disarmament.

A senior Palestinian source accused Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza on the US-led Board of Peace, of bias towards Israel. 

Last month, Mr Mladenov outlined a framework for Gaza’s demilitarisation as part of the second phase of the ceasefire deal agreed by Hamas and Israel in October.

The source said Hamas told regional mediators that it would not engage in talks on the second phase until Israel fully implemented the terms of the first phase.

Meanwhile, Israel has insisted it will not move forward without progress on Hamas’s disarmament.