By Charlie Devereux and Christophe Van Der Perre

BARCELONA (Reuters) -Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg joined a flotilla of boats loaded with aid for Gaza as they set sail from Barcelona on Sunday, aiming to break Israel's naval blockade and deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to the shattered enclave.

Thousands of supporters gathered at Barcelona's port to see off the boats, many of them waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine" and "It's not a war, it's a genocide".

By Riham Alkousaa

ALTENA, Germany (Reuters) -A decade ago, as Germany was grappling with an influx of more than a million migrants, the small town of Altena saw an opportunity to reverse years of population and economic decline.

The industrial town in Western Germany made national headlines in 2015 when it volunteered to take in 100 more migrants than required, becoming a model of Chancellor Angela Merkel's pledge: "Wir schaffen das" - "We can do this."

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lili Bayer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.

Local health authorities said Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 18 people on Sunday, including 13 who tried to get food from near an aid site in the central Gaza Strip, and at least two in a house in Gaza City.

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.