“IT’S just horrific. You go to bed thinking about it, you wake up thinking about it. I could only imagine what the people in Gaza feel.”

Those feelings, expressed by Scottish grandmother and activist Margaret Pacetta, are what spurred her and hundreds of others from across the globe to get involved with the Freedom Flotilla – a naval convoy looking to deliver 5500 tonnes of aid to the people of Palestine.

But last weekend, ignoring warnings from the UN not to “interfere” with civilians aiming to deliver aid, Israel allegedly exerted influence to prevent the flotilla from sailing.

Under pressure, the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau withdrew its flag from the lead ship, and the aid convoy’s launch date was pushed back indefinitely as a result.

Pacetta was one of some 500 volunteers – from more than 30 different countries – who were waiting in Istanbul for the green light to travel on to Gaza.

The 69-year-old, from Bishopbriggs, said the process of finding a new nation’s flag to sail under could take months, but it has not deterred her or the other volunteers.

“We've not given up. There's no way,” the Scots campaigner said. “We are definitely setting sail. But how many people are going to die waiting on us?

“For everybody who cares about the people in Gaza: how many children, women, families are all going to die waiting?”

The aid convoy

Another question that needs to be asked is: if the aid will be sat waiting for months before it can begin the journey to Gaza, will it not perish before then?

Pacetta says that won’t happen, stressing that aid takes many more forms than just food.

“We also had an ambulance,” she explained.

“We had a fire engine. We had doctors wanting to go and work there. Nurses, engineers, people who are just wanting to go and work in Gaza.”

She pointed to Carlos Trotta as one example. An 82-year-old cardiologist from Argentina who had worked extensively with Doctors Without Borders, Trotta was to sail on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza.

But Trotta, Pacetta and hundreds of others were ultimately blocked from travelling.

“It was absolutely heartbreaking,” Pacetta said. “There were tears all around. We were babbling like babies – not for us, I must stress, not for us, but the people in Gaza, starving. You've seen photographs: children, babies.

“We've got all that aid that we could have given, and yet every obstacle was put in the way.”

The news only came after weeks of waiting in Istanbul for the green light – weeks which ate away at many of the volunteers’ funds.

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“I’ve used up a lot of my savings,” Pacetta said. “It’s my 50th wedding anniversary in July. We were saving for a cruise around the Med. My husband said to me: ‘You need to make a decision. This is your cruise round the Med if you go on the flotilla’.

“I wouldn't swap it, but there won’t be a cruise in July. A lot of that money’s gone.

“I may go for a wee paddle down the Clyde for my anniversary. Or there’s the Yoker ferry. I could get the Yoker ferry,” she joked.

Israel’s ‘summary executions’ of Freedom Flotilla activists

But despite Pacetta’s cheerful demeanour, the activists and aid workers on the Freedom Flotilla were far from safe.

In 2010, 10 Freedom Flotilla participants were murdered and dozens more injured when Israeli troops boarded their boat, which was headed to deliver aid to Gaza.

A UN report into the incident concluded that “Israeli forces carried out extralegal, arbitrary and summary executions prohibited by international human rights law”.

On April 26, the day the flotilla was to set sail, the UN issued a warning to Israel not to “interfere” with the civilian convoy or harm its passengers.

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It said: “Israel has now created a famine by cutting off the regular supply of water, food and critical goods into Gaza, destroying livelihoods, the food system and civilian infrastructure.

“Failing to comply with its humanitarian obligations as the occupying power, Israel is also restricting humanitarian aid, intentionally bombarding humanitarian convoys and targeting both aid workers and civilians seeking aid.”

Asked if she was afraid of finding herself a target for Israeli forces, Pacetta (below) said: “I'll be honest, I think if people say they're not scared, they're not frightened, I don't think they're thinking about it quite right.

The National:

“Everyone must have some doubt as to, you know, what happens if they come onboard and open fire on us all.

“The way I try to look at it is, Israel is trying to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians, without a doubt. I think it's very apparent. How can we stand back and let that happen and do nothing?

“We need people there to see it, to witness it, to get word out there.”

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Pacetta said that she and the other volunteers had, during their time in Istanbul, been given training on how to deal with being boarded by Israeli forces.

“They said, 'we're going to let you experience it',” she explained. “The lights went down. You heard screaming. You heard bangs. You heard gunfire.

“Then all of a sudden, people dressed up as Israeli forces with what was supposedly an iron bar attacking us, screaming at us, hitting us, really quite viciously, just to give us a general idea.

“They said: ‘Listen, this is not everyone's cup of tea. If anyone wants to pull out, not a problem. There's still lots you can do. There's no problem pulling out.’

“But very, very few people did.”

The Israeli Embassy was approached for comment.