EMERGENCY Stands in Solidarity with Global Sumud Flotilla Activists

On 3 October, EMERGENCY is joining demonstrations across Italy as part of the general strike organised by the unions CGIL and USB, in solidarity with and defence of the Flotilla activists who have been illegally intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, and to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

EMERGENCY's search and rescue ship Life Support had been accompanying the Global Sumud Flotilla as an observer and to provide medical, technical and logistical support.

"By intercepting the Flotilla and detaining the activists in international waters, the Israeli government has committed a hostile act against a non-violent humanitarian mission," comments EMERGENCY. "We are confronted with a very serious incident that violates international law, and we call on governments and international institutions to make a political and diplomatic commitment to guarantee the safety of the activists, who have acted in full compliance with international humanitarian law."

"EMERGENCY, which entered the Gaza Strip in August 2024, is a direct witness to the desperate conditions in which the population is forced to survive: without food, water, medicine, homes or shelter, under constant bombardment and with constant evacuation orders," explains the NGO. "In over 30 years of our organisation's history and humanitarian interventions in conflict zones, we have never seen such brutality as has been inflicted for months on the Gazan population, literally trapped between bombs, rubble and hunger."

EMERGENCY is present in Gaza with a clinic in al-Qarara (Khan Younis) and also provides assistance in the primary care clinic set up by the local organisation Culture & Free Thought Association (CFTA) in al-Mawasi. Together, the clinics treat an average of over 600 people every day.

"Thus far, Europe has not taken any diplomatic initiatives to protect the civilian population and is essentially spectator to the negotiations initiated by the United States, making itself complicit in what a recent statement by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has defined as 'genocide'," continues EMERGENCY.

"Alongside citizens and civil society, EMERGENCY is once again mobilising to push European governments to act. EMERGENCY is also once again appealing to the Italian government with three urgent requests: to immediately activate diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire and for the respect of international humanitarian law; to cancel the Memorandum of Understanding for military cooperation between Italy and Israel; and to stop the sale of arms and weapons systems to and from Israel," concludes the NGO.

"We do not want to be, and cannot be, complicit in this massacre."