This article was originally published by Ma'an News and is republished with permission.

A member of the Free Gaza Movement smiles after arriving in the port of Gaza City from Cyprus on Wednesday. (Hatem Omar, Maan Images)

Internationals who sailed on a siege-breaking ship to the Gaza Strip from Cyprus toured the village of Umm al-Nasser - the scene of a horrific 2007 sewage flood that left five Palestinians dead - in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday.

During their tour of the village, the international visitors got a first-hand look at the suffering experienced by the residents of Gaza due to the Israeli blockade on the Strip.

Five people were killed in Umm al-Nasser in 2007 when a massive sewage cesspool burst its banks, flooding the village with untreated sewage-water.

Officials in the village say that because of Israel's restrictions on imports of building supplies into Gaza, the banks of the sewage pool still cannot be properly repaired.

Locals fear a similar disaster could befall them again, especially as the approaching winter season begins to bring heavy rainfall to the region.

Twenty-seven visitors from 13 countries sailed to Gaza from Cyprus on Wednesday in defiance Israel's ongoing blockade of the tiny coastal territory.

The Palestinian-International Campaign Against the Siege organized the tour to Umm al-Nasser. They were received by village council head Ziad Abu Thuryya and a crowd of Palestinians from the village. The international visitors also toured a local clinic affiliated with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.