ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan arrived in Tunisia on Sunday to set sail with a global flotilla seeking to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, amid fears of starvation and disease becoming widespread in the Palestinian territory.

The fleet of more than 100 vessels, which will converge in the Mediterranean, brings together four regional alliances: Sumud Nusantara from Asia, Sumud Maghrib from Africa, the Global March to Gaza from the Middle East and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition from Europe. Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who are part of the flotilla, left Barcelona on Sunday vowing to try to "break the illegal siege of Gaza."

Khan, affiliated with the Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami religious party, earlier said he would be part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is deemed as the largest civilian maritime mission ever assembled for Gaza. Training for the voyage will be held in Tunisia from Sept. 1 to 3, after which Khan and others will set sail on Sept. 4. The cargo will consist of food, water and medicine.

"From this very [Tunisian] port and on these very ships, we will break the Gaza blockade," Khan said in a video message he posted on social media platform X on Sunday, carrying a large flag of Pakistan atop a ship.

Khan urged the people to pay their part in supporting the flotilla by highlighting its activities on social media and protesting against Israel's military offensive in Gaza. 

The development takes place as Israel intensifies its military offensive in Gaza, limiting the deliveries of food and basic supplies there. The move has earned the ire of several countries around the world, including Pakistan, who have demanded Israel lift the blockade and allow medicines and food to reach the people. Food experts warned in August that Gaza was in famine and that half a million people across the territory were facing catastrophic levels of hunger.

The Sumud flotilla will be the fourth attempt to break Israel's maritime blockade so far this year. In June this year, Thunberg sailed from Sicily with humanitarian supplies on another Freedom Flotilla vessel, the Madleen, which was intercepted and seized by Israeli forces in international waters.

In a statement last week, Khan had said he and other participants of the flotilla were prepared for the risks. He recalled blockades of and attacks on past flotillas, including a deadly 2010 raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara that left 10 activists dead.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more than 63,000 people, with at least 332 Palestinians dying of malnutrition, including 124 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

ISLAMABAD: Indian dam releases and heavy monsoon rains have raised the risk of major flooding in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, where at least 33 people have died and 2 million have been displaced since last week, officials said on Monday.

Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province and the country’s agricultural heartland, has been inundated by abnormally high monsoon downpours compounded by excess water flowing in from neighboring India. Nationwide, the seasonal rains and floods have killed 854 people since June 26.

“All relevant departments are on alert due to water being released into the Chenab by India,” Irfan Ali Kathia, director general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab, told reporters. “Punjab is monitoring the situation in the rivers round the clock.”

Kathia said the province was mounting the “largest rescue and relief operation” in its history, with food and basic necessities being provided to displaced families.

Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed said 506 relief and 352 medical camps had been established in affected areas. More than 17,000 people have received health care, he added, while over 500,000 head of livestock had been shifted to safer locations.

Kathia said a flood wave in the Chenab was moving toward Trimmu Headworks, with flows expected to rise from 479,000 to 700,000 cusecs by Monday evening.

He warned of an “extremely high flood level” at Balloki on the Ravi river, where flows had already surged to 168,000 cusecs. The Sutlej was flowing at 253,000 cusecs, while at Panjnad, the confluence of Punjab’s five rivers, water levels were expected to reach around one million cusecs between Sept. 2–3.

Separately, Pakistan’s commissioner for Indus Waters circulated a letter to government departments citing an Indian High Commission warning of possible “high flood” levels at Harike and Ferozepur on the Sutlej. 

India routinely releases excess water from its reservoirs when they reach capacity, under arrangements governed by the Indus Waters Treaty.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Pakistan, ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, has experienced increasingly frequent and erratic weather events in recent years, including heat waves, untimely rains, cyclones and droughts.

Lt. Gen. Inam Haider Malik, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said Sunday that Pakistan was in a state of climate emergency, with “major natural hazards hitting every two months” and now posing a grave national security threat.

“After every two months, Pakistan is facing a big disaster … and unfortunately this is a part of reality,” Malik told reporters, warning that climate change would intensify in coming years and calling it a “national security” issue for the country. 

The current flooding has revived memories of the catastrophic 2022 deluge, when a third of Pakistan was submerged, more than 1,700 people were killed, 30 million displaced and damages estimated at $35 billion.