Billy Bragg has released a new original song to show his support for the people of Palestine. The title of Hundred Year Hunger was inspired by a new book of the same name by E Mark Windle about the history of chronic malnutrition and deprivation in Gaza and will raise money for the Amos Trust’s Gaza Appeal.

Writing on Instagram, the British protest singer said that the song “looks at the current famine that Israel has created in Gaza through the lens of a century of enforced food insecurity and malnutrition imposed on the Palestinian people, firstly by British imperialism, then as a weapon of mass displacement by the state of Israel”.

The song was released to coincide with a new humanitarian aid flotilla – with Greta Thunberg among their number – setting sail from Barcelona to try to “break the illegal siege of Gaza”, organisers said. The intention is to open a humanitarian corridor and deliver aid to an area gripped by famine. It is expected to arrive in mid-September. Israel previously blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza.