A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists to Gaza has been bombed by drones and disabled while in international waters off Malta as it headed towards the Palestinian territory, its organisers have said.
“At 00:23 Maltese time, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a statement.
“Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,” it added, blaming Israel.
The strike appeared to target the boat’s generator early on Friday, leaving the boat without power and at risk of sinking, the activists said. Images posted to social media by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition showed a fierce blaze onboard the ship and two explosions.
There was no confirmation or further evidence of the claim that drones caused the blasts, but images of the Conscience provided by Cypriot authorities showed significant damage.
Twelve crew members and four civilians were “confirmed safe”, the Maltese government said in a statement on Friday. “The vessel had 12 crew members onboard and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported,” the statement said, adding that a nearby tug had been directed to aid the vessel.
The group said activists from 21 countries were onboard on a “mission to challenge Israel’s illegal and deadly siege of Gaza and to deliver desperately needed, life-saving aid”.
The statement read: “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”
Israel has not commented on the allegation.
According to the monitoring website MarineTraffic, the Conscience left the Tunisian port of Bizerte on Tuesday and arrived in the area where it reported being attacked on Thursday morning. The ship appeared to be heading to Malta to pick up activists, including the climate-change campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Thunberg confirmed to Reuters she was in Malta and had been supposed to board the ship.
“I was part of the group who was supposed to board that boat today to continue the voyage towards Gaza, which is one of many attempts to open up a humanitarian corridor and to do our part to keep trying to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza,” she said. “This attack caused an explosion and major damage to the vessel, which made it impossible to continue the mission.”
Thunberg and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said there were 30 people onboard, not 16 as the Maltese government said.
The group said it had been organising a non-violent action under a media blackout in order to avoid any potential sabotage.
A previous sailing launched by the coalition from southern Turkey in 2010 ended in bloodshed when Israeli forces stormed the Mavi Marmara vessel, killing 10 people and wounding 28.
Israel imposed a tight blockade on Gaza two months ago, allowing no food, fuel, medicine or other item into the territory, and resumed intense military operations in Gaza in mid-March after a fragile ceasefire collapsed.
Humanitarian organisations in Gaza have distributed the last of their stocks of flour and other foodstuffs. Officials in the devastated Palestinian territory said on Friday that the kitchens that serve basic meals to those with no other option would be forced to close within a week to 10 days.
On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it would not have access to food, medicine and life-saving supplies needed for many of its Gaza programmes unless aid deliveries resumed immediately.
“Aid must be allowed to enter Gaza. Hostages must be released. Civilians must be protected,” it said. “Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.”
Medical workers in Gaza’s remaining health facilities said they were now prioritising cases to make sure available medical stocks were reserved for the most serious. Medicine for chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure is virtually unobtainable, officials said.
“I don’t know how people are managing. They have lost everything. The displacement continues every day and more people are searching for shelter and whatever they need to survive,” said Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza.
A UN team has been sent to the devastated Palestinian territory to assess levels of malnutrition and the risk of famine.
Israeli officials justify the blockade with claims that Hamas routinely steals aid, distributing it to its fighters or selling it. Aid officials in Gaza deny any widespread theft of aid in recent months.
Media in Israel have reported a plan to use private contractors to distribute food from centralised hubs protected by the Israeli military to Palestinians who have been vetted. Humanitarian officials in Gaza say the plan is unworkable and potentially illegal.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people had been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418, also mostly civilians.
Source: The Guardian
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
