Organizers say Israel is behind drone attack on Gaza aid flotilla

A ship carrying aid to Gaza was hit by a drone attack in international waters off the coast of Malta.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) says that drones hit a vessel twice, causing a fire and a breach in the hull. On social media, the group shared a video of the boat in flames.

“The ship, located in international waters just off the coast of Malta, issued an SOS distress signal immediately following the attack,” said the group in a statement. “A vessel from Southern Cypress was dispatched but is not providing the critical electrical support needed. The drone strike appears to have deliberately targeted the ship’s generator, leaving the crew without power and placing the vessel at great risk of sinking.”

Local sources report that Maltese forces arrived to rescue the ship.

Israel has not commented on the strike. According to the flight-tracking website ADS-B Exchange, an Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules flew to Malta prior to the drone attacks.

The human rights activists on the boat are attempting to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade and deliver food and supplies to the people of Gaza. Israel has barred all aid trucks from entering Gaza since March 2.

The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) recently reported that food stocks are now exhausted and hunger is spreading throughout the region.

“Since the beginning of the war, we’ve gotten used to eating one meal a day,” said Gaza City resident Hajj Ahmad in a recent video testimony to Mondoweiss.“If we’re lucky, we sometimes get dinner. We get our main daily meal from food distribution points, but they’re dwindling, and most have closed, so we don’t have a main meal anymore. It means death for us and our children.”

“Famine is not imminent. Famine is already here. We are now living within its framework,” Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza director Amjad Shawa told Mondoweiss. “The indicators that prove this are the closure of dozens of food distribution centers, the closure of bakeries, the widespread cases of malnutrition, and the results of anemia among women that appear in various tests.”

If their involvement is confirmed, it wouldn’t be the first time that Israel has targeted activists carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza. In 2010, the Israeli navy stormed the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla”, killing ten people.

“If Israel can get away with this — executing a lethal drone strike on aid workers thousands of kilometers from its borders in international waters — then no ally of Palestine, anywhere, is safe,” tweeted Progressive International’s David Adler. “The Flotilla strike was an attack on solidarity itself.”

“The only reason civilians like us are compelled to sail life-saving aid to Gaza is because governments around the world have utterly failed to stop Israel’s campaign of extermination. Today’s attack on our flotilla off the coast of Malta is not just an act of piracy—it’s a consequence of global complicity,” FFC Steering
Committee Member Huwaida Arraf told Mondoweiss. “As a survivor of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla when Israel murdered 10 of our colleagues aboard the Mavi Marmara, I see the only thing that has changed is that Israel has become more brazen in its disregard for international law and for human life. The blood spilled then—and ever since—is on the hands of every state that has enabled Israel with silence, weapons, and impunity.”

“We continue to call on states to live up to their obligations to stop Israel’s egregious crimes against the Palestinian people and anyone attempting to challenge Israel’s crimes against humanity.”