Flotilla rejected Italian government’s mediation attempt.
Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella on Friday issued an appeal to the crew of a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza to accept a compromise solution and not to put their safety at risk.
In an unusual move, Mattarella appealed to crew members to accept the government’s mediation offer for the Global Sumud Flotilla to drop off its humanitarian aid in Cyprus where it would be transferred to Gaza by the Catholic Church’s Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
“The value of human life, which seems to have lost its meaning in Gaza, where it is severely trodden upon with inhuman suffering for the population, makes it imperative to avoid jeopardising the safety of each individual person”, Mattarella said in a statement.
The president said that it was “necessary to safeguard” the mission and its goal of delivering aid supplies to Palestine.
Mattarella addressed his appeal, “with genuine intensity”, to those aboard the flotilla to accept the offer of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to carry out the safe delivery of the humanitarian supplies “to the children, women and men in Gaza”.
The flotilla’s Italian delegation on Thursday rejected the Italian government’s mediation, following several drone attacks on the boats, stressing: “Our mission remains faithful to its original objective of lifting the illegal siege and delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged population of Gaza, victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing”.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticised the flotilla as “dangerous and irresponsible”, in comments widely criticised by the centre-left opposition, claiming that the mission was causing problems for her right-wing government.
Israel has threatened to designate all the Global Sumud Flotilla volunteers as “terrorists” and arrest them.
Meloni – who called for “responsibility”, particularly from the four Italian opposition MPS on board the flotilla – harshly condemned the drone attack on boats travelling with the flotilla in international waters off Greece, the third such incident this month.
Defence minister Guido Crosetto also condemned the attack and deployed a navy ship to offer assistance to Italian citizens travelling with the flotilla, which comprises more than 50 boats with thousands of participants from 44 countries.
Crosetto echoed Meloni’s view that the flotilla’s bid to break though the Israeli blockage to deliver aid to Gaza was irresponsible, stressing the “worrying climate”.
“We will continue to work so that no incidents happen to the flotilla and I ask for your help on this, regardless of political differences,” Crosetto told parliament on Thursday, warning: “We are not able to guarantee the safety of the boats outside international waters”.
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