Organizers say ship carrying aid for Gaza hit by drones near Malta

Organizers of a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid intended for Gaza said their vessel came under attack from armed drones in international waters off the coast of Malta early Friday, causing serious damage to its hull and endangering the lives of those on board.

“Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement.

Surya McEwen, a volunteer who is involved in the efforts to ship aid to Gaza and was in communication with a few people on board until he lost contact just before sunrise, said in an interview that the passenger vessel, Conscience, was struck shortly after midnight local time by what looked like missiles from two drones, which appeared to be aiming at the ship’s generators.

The drones were still circling above the ship when he lost contact, McEwen said. He added that it was not clear who was behind the attack.

There were no reports of injuries.

Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, wrote in an email that while the group could not “confirm 100%,” it suspected Israel was behind the attack.

“Israel has threatened us and attacked us many times before, in 2010, killing 10 of our volunteers. It is also the primary entity interested in keep us and any aid out of Gaza,” she wrote, referring to a 2010 mission by the group that came under Israeli attack, killing 10 people and sparking a diplomatic crisis.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to requests for comment.

The Maltese government said in a statement that it had received a mayday call at 12:20 a.m. from the Conscience reporting a fire on its bow. A nearby tugboat with firefighting equipment offered support to the ship, and by 3:35 a.m. the vessel and its crew were secure, the government added, without providing information about the cause of the blaze.

Footage shared by the group appeared to show smoke and fire on the ship, as well as the sound of an explosion in another part of the clip, although the group did not immediately provide evidence that drones were the cause of the fire.

McEwen said that 12 crew members and six members of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition were on board at the time; the Maltese government statement said that there were 12 crew and four civilian passengers.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Ann Wright, a retired U.S. diplomat and former Army colonel, had been due to board the ship along with other participants from more than 20 countries, McEwen added.

Thunberg told the Times of Malta that the incident was “yet another crystal-clear example of how international law and human rights are being completely disrespected,” adding that she thought many were “shocked as well that this attack happened so close to an EU country.”

“Anyone could have been on the boat … it’s the craziest thing in the world,” Wright told CNN. “Who would send drones to bomb a ship that is anchoring off Malta?”

Yasemin Acar, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s press officer, said that the vessel had been sailing under the Palau flag – but she added that the group was informed Thursday afternoon that Palau had removed its flag.

Marine tracking sites showed the vessel departed from the Tunisian port of Bizerte late Tuesday, and was in waters east of Malta by Thursday.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, wrote on X that she had received “a distressed call” from the flotilla, adding: “I call on concerned state authorities, including maritime authorities, to support the ship and its crew as needed. I trust the competent authorities will also ascertain the facts and intervene appropriately.”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a movement involving more than a dozen pro-Palestinian human rights groups, has organized aid missions aimed at breaching Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip for years. The organizers have launched a number of similar operations, including the 2010 mission that came under Israeli attack.

Israel has long argued that the naval blockade is needed to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza.

Israel has also imposed a total siege on Gaza, preventing all aid from entering, since March 2, after the first phase of a truce expired. Israel said it was imposing the blockade to pressure Hamas, which rules the territory and attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023.

Residents and aid groups say the siege has plunged Gaza into a hunger crisis, with the World Food Program saying its food stocks for community kitchens have been depleted.