A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, left Barcelona on Sunday vowing to try to "break the illegal siege of Gaza", organisers said.

Some 20 vessels set off from the port city on Spain's east coast just after 3.30 pm (1330 GMT) pledging to "open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people", said the Global Sumud Flotilla -- sumud being the Arabic term for "resilience".

CAIRO (Reuters) -The Palestinian militant group Hamas confirmed on Saturday the death of its Gaza military chief Mohammad Sinwar, a few months after Israel said it killed him in a strike in May.

Hamas did not provide details on Sinwar's death but published pictures of him along with other group leaders, describing them as "martyrs".

Mohammad Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Islamist faction’s chief, who co-masterminded the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and whom Israel had killed in combat a year later.

(Reuters) -Israel identified the body of hostage Idan Shtivi, recovered from the Gaza Strip in a military operation this week that retrieved the remains of two hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday.

Netanyahu's office had announced on Friday the retrieval of Ilan Weiss's body along with the remains of another hostage, whose identity is now known to be that of Shtivi but had not been disclosed at the time.

With Weiss and Shtivi's bodies recovered, Israel says 48 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom only 20 are believed to be alive.

Thousands of people protested Saturday against Israel's siege of Gaza on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival, seeking to move the spotlight from movie drama to real-world trauma.

Organised by left-wing political groups in northeast Italy, the demonstration began in the early evening a few kilometres from the festival where top Hollywood talent from George Clooney and Julia Roberts to Emma Stone have walked the red carpet in recent days.

Aid flotillas like the one preparing to leave for Gaza would not be necessary if governments upheld international law, rights activist Greta Thunberg told AFP Saturday.

"It should not have to be up to us," said the 22-year-old Swedish campaigner, who will join the flotilla when it sets off from Barcelona on Sunday.

"A mission like this should not have to exist," she added.

"It is the responsibility of countries, of our governments and elected officials to act to try to uphold international law, to prevent war crimes, to prevent genocide," she said.

Thousands protested Saturday against Israel's siege of Gaza on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival, seeking to move the spotlight from movie drama to real-world trauma.

Organised by left-wing political groups in northeast Italy, the demonstration began in the early evening a few kilometres from the festival where George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Emma Stone have walked the red carpet in recent days.

(Reuters) -The prime minister of Yemen's Houthi government and several other ministers were killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sana, the news agency run by the group said on Saturday, citing a statement by the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat.

A number of others were wounded in Thursday's strike, it said, without providing details.

Israel said on Friday that the airstrike had targeted the Iran-aligned group's chief of staff, defence minister and other senior officials and that it was verifying the outcome.

The Red Cross warned on Saturday that any Israeli attempt to evacuate Gaza City would put residents at risk, as Israel's military tightened its siege on the area ahead of a planned offensive.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that since dawn Israeli attacks had killed 66 people in the territory already devastated by nearly 23 months of war.

"It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions," International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.

By Andrew Gray

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -European Union foreign ministers on Saturday were deeply split over the war in Gaza, with some calling for the EU to apply strong economic pressure on Israel while others made clear they were unwilling to go that far.

"We are divided about this issue," Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, said as she arrived for a meeting with the ministers in the Danish capital Copenhagen.

"If you don't have a unified voice ... on this topic, we don't have a voice on the global scene. So that's definitely very problematic," she said.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -The head of the Red Cross warned on Saturday that it would be impossible to keep people safe during a mass evacuation of Gaza City, as Israel intensifies its assault.

Israel is pushing ahead with its plan to take full control of the whole Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City, with the goal of destroying Hamas after nearly 23 months of war, while facing a global outcry over starvation in the besieged enclave.