GUARULHOS: Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, one of the main organizers of the international aid flotilla to Gaza, said Thursday that the movement to get life-saving relief to the devastated Palestinian enclave would continue, after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas.
“There is nothing in the ceasefire agreements to indicate that the illegal blockade of Gaza by Israel, the United States, or any other nation will end,” he told reporters upon his return to Brazil.
“As long as there is no justice for the Palestinian people, the flotilla will continue.”
Avila was one of 13 Brazilians aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla of 45 vessels intercepted by Israel last week.
Israel detained and deported more than 470 people aboard the boats, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Israel has blocked several international aid flotillas in recent months from reaching Gaza, where the United Nations says famine has set in after two years of a devastating Israeli military offensive.
Israel enforces a blockade on the territory, and has slashed the amount of humanitarian aid allowed into the enclave while the war has raged.
Several activists on board the flotilla reported mistreatment in detention, which Israel denied.
“Obviously, there were violations that will be the subject of complaints in international courts, but they are nothing compared to what the Palestinians are suffering,” said Avila.
He reported cases of “physical violence” and “forced interrogations” of activists.
“Diabetics have gone three days without access to insulin,” he said.
Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a ceasefire deal after more than two years of war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has reduced much of Gaza to rubble — including schools, hospitals and basic infrastructure — and killed at least 67,194 people, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Gaza aid flotillas to continue: Brazilian activist
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Gaza aid flotillas to continue: Brazilian activist
- “As long as there is no justice for the Palestinian people, the flotilla will continue,” Avila said
- He was one of 13 Brazilians aboard Gaza flotilla of 45 vessels intercepted by Israel last week
More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US
- “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X
DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X.
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
