A Maltese tugboat attempts to extinguish a fire aboard the ship Conscience, after the Freedom Flotilla Coalition reported it was hit by a drone strike while carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Photo courtesy of the Government of Malta.
“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.
“(Israeli) armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,” the group added, holding Israel responsible for the assault.
"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters."
The strike, the activists said, appeared to target the boat's generator. It left the boat without power and at risk of sinking, the statement added.
There was no indication of any casualties. The statement said a vessel was dispatched from Cyprus after the aid boat sent out a distress signal, and that Italian authorities said they had sent another boat to the scene.
The group said activists from 21 countries were on board. They are on what it called a "mission to challenge Israel's illegal and deadly siege of Gaza, and to deliver desperately needed, life-saving aid".
Israel has since March 2 blocked all aid deliveries, including food, to Gaza before launching surprise attacks on the territory in mid-March, unilaterally ending a two-month ceasefire that had brought relative calm to the war-battered strip. It has since resumed its “live-streamed genocide” that has already killed tens of thousands and reduced Gaza to rubble.
A previous "Freedom Flotilla" launched from southern Turkey in 2010 ended in bloodshed when Israeli forces stormed the Mavi Marmara vessel, killing 10 and wounding 28.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed war on 18 March, bringing the total death toll since the war began on 7 October 2023 to 52,418—most of them women and children—with at least 118,091 others wounded.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
Short link: