News - World: Spain has said it would dispatch a ship tasked with helping the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), a monumental fleet featuring some 50 vessels heading towards the Gaza Strip to break the Israeli regime’s near-total siege of the coastal sliver.

Spain’s El Pais newspaper cited Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as making the announcement on Wednesday,

“A maritime action vessel equipped with all the necessary resources will set sail from Cartagena tomorrow in case it is necessary to assist the flotilla and carry out any rescues,” he said.

The country, the paper added, has coordinated the solidarity move with Rome.

The report also said Spain’s defense ministry had contacted its Italian counterpart to explore a broader coordinated action, which could involve other countries such as Ireland.

Both Italian and Spanish officials have, however, underlined their respective countries’ insistence that their vessels would not engage in confronting potential Israeli aggression against the GSF’s vessels.

The regime has historically targeted such fleets with violence, which turned deadly in 2010 after Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish ship that sought to break Gaza’s blockade.

On Tuesday, it was reported that the Israeli regime had threatened to block the Global Sumud Flotilla after the fleet refused to “dock and unload” the aid it is carrying for the coastal sliver’s war-hit and starving population.

The flotilla’s organizers said the demand was part of Tel Aviv’s siege, saying the regime’s record of intercepting vessels, blocking convoys, and restricting routes showed that its intent was not to facilitate relief, but to control, delay, and deny it.

Also on Tuesday, the organizers said the regime had escalated its “dangerous” attacks on the fleet’s vessels.

They cited “explosions, heavy drone swarms, and communications jamming,” saying the escalation served as a harbinger of stronger aggression against the fleet’s 500-plus civilian volunteers.

The GSF comprises more than 50 boats, which embarked from Barcelona late last month on a mission to break, what has been denounced by human rights bodies as, one of the world’s strictest and most inhumane blockades.

The flotilla has been described as the largest maritime mission of its kind in decades, carrying delegations from at least 44 countries.

Source: Press TV