On his Telegram account, the Bolivarian leader published the statement “condemning this new aggression by the Israeli regime,” which confirmed its “historical practice of turning Palestinian land into the largest open-air prison and cemetery in the contemporary world.”

The movement of thought also expressed its “absolute rejection of the genocide” suffered by the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel, a state founded on the dispossession and colonial occupation of Palestinian territories and the attempt to seize the remaining fragments of what was once their homeland, he stated.

The statement noted that the Sumud Global Flotilla, carrying food, baby formula, medicine, and volunteers from 47 countries to Gaza, was “illegally intercepted in international waters by the Zionist regime, and hundreds of its volunteer crew members were kidnapped.”

It indicated, according to reports released the day before, that this occurred after they were attacked “with water cannons, sprayed with skunkwater, and their communications were systematically blocked in further acts of aggression against unarmed civilians.”

The Network added that several vessels were stopped by a chain-link barrier in international waters where Israel has no jurisdiction, “just as it has no jurisdiction over the waters and coast of Gaza, exacerbating the ongoing war crimes and illegal blockade.”

The text stated that in response to the Israeli attack on the Sumud Global Flotilla, thousands of protesters took to the streets in different countries around the world, including those whose governments are complicit in the Zionist government of (Benjamin) Netanyahu, demanding “Freedom for Gaza.”

jdt/mem/jcd