Flotilla, PM Meloni responds to Schlein: Government ensures the protection of Italians

The Italian government "suggests the possibility of using alternative and more effective channels for delivering" aid to Gaza than the initiative of the Global Sumud Flotilla, but "acknowledging that the initiative may also have a symbolic or political purpose, and that it is therefore intended to be carried out regardless of the above, the Italian government assures that all measures will be taken to protect and ensure the safety of its compatriots abroad in similar situations, as always guaranteed up to now". This is what Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote in her reply to PD secretary Elly Schlein, who yesterday, Wednesday 3 September, had asked her that the government guarantee the security of crews.

We read the letter from the president of the Council in response to the letter from the secretary Elly Schlein. It seems to us a vague and evasive answer. We want to remind Giorgia Meloni that the purpose of the Global Sumud Flotilla mission is certainly not symbolic: it is about tons of food to be brought to Gaza that will bring relief to those tormented populations. And we stress that this is not a political initiative but a humanitarian one, because Flottilla is trying to do what European governments should be doing and instead are not doing. This is why we reiterate our request that the Italian government guarantee security and protection to a mission that also has Italian parliamentarians on board'. Thus in a note by the PD group leaders in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies Francesco Boccia and Chiara Braga and the head of the PD delegation in Brussels Nicola Zingaretti.

With Flotilla risks, active channels safer

In her response to Schlein, Meloni emphasises that there are alternative channels to reach the affected populations with aid. "Making use of the humanitarian channels already in place, not only by the Italian government, would avoid exposing the participants in the initiative "Global Sumud Flotilla" to the risks of travelling to a crisis zone and the consequent burden on the various state authorities involved to guarantee protection and safety," Meloni further points out.

"To facilitate the success" of the "delivery of basic necessities to the Palestinian population, taking into account the limited amount of aid that can be transported on the boats involved", writes the prrmier, "we suggest the possibility of using alternative and more effective delivery channels. Among these, I would like to point out the channels activated so far by the Italian Government, which, as is well known, plays a leading role in providing assistance to the civilian population through the 'Food for Gaza' humanitarian initiative, through which it has been possible to distribute over 200 tons of basic necessities, food and medical aid, reaching even the most isolated and hard-to-reach areas of the Strip'.