Fierce Mediterranean winds forced a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, including environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg, to return to Barcelona, organisers said on Monday.

Around 20 vessels left the Spanish city on Sunday aiming to "open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people" amid the Israel-Hamas war, said the Global Sumud Flotilla -- sumud being the Arabic term for "resilience".

But "due to unsafe weather conditions, we conducted a sea trial and then returned to port to allow the storm to pass," the organisation said in a statement, without specifying when exactly the boats returned to Barcelona.

"This meant delaying our departure to avoid risking complications with the smaller boats," it a

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