Italy's opposition MP asks government to explain Israeli use of Sicilian air base

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - Italy’s opposition lawmaker Angelo Bonelli said on Wednesday that the Israeli military used the US Sigonella air base in Sicily in recent days, calling on the government to explain the nature of this mission to Italy.

"We demand immediate explanations from the government about what has happened in the last few hours: three Israeli military aircraft flew over Sicily and landed at the Sigonella military base," said Bonelli, a MP with the leftist Green-Left Alliance (AVS).

"One of these aircraft, a KC-130H, took off yesterday from Nevatim Air Base in Israel at 3:10 p.m. and landed in Sigonella at 6:40 p.m., then took off again,” Bonelli added in a statement.

The lawmaker also stressed “it is unacceptable for Italian bases to be used by the military aircraft of a state that is conducting a massacre against the Palestinian people.”

Bonelli asked the Italian right-wing government led by Premier Giorgia Meloni to clarify if the Israeli planes “came to spy on the Global Sumud Flotilla, which is moving in the Mediterranean to break the siege of Gaza, or did they come to take on war material?"

The Global Sumud Flotilla -- described as the largest maritime mission to Gaza -- is bringing together more than 50 ships and delegations from at least 44 countries, in an attempt to break Israel's naval blockade and get the humanitarian aid that the civilian population needs.

The first convoy, including dozens of small civilian vessels carrying activists, departed from Spanish ports at the end of August to meet up in Tunisia with a second wave on Sept. 4.

On Sunday, a few ships will also depart from the Sicilian ports of Catania and Siracusa and will join the Flotilla.

Since 2010, all flotillas attempting to break the Gaza blockade have been intercepted or attacked by Israel in international waters.