Israel Bombs Humanitarian Aid Flotilla on Way to Gaza
A similar aid convoy was attacked by Tel Aviv in 2010, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more
May 2, 2025
A ship carrying supplies bound for the Gaza Strip was attacked by Israeli drones in international waters on Friday, according to the activist group that organized the flotilla. The vessel reportedly took at least one direct hit to its hull and sustained damage from fire, forcing its crew to issue an urgent call for help.
Organizers with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said one of their vessels was attacked by an unidentified drone in the early hours of Friday morning, noting the ship was not far off the coast of Malta when it was hit.
“At 00:23 Maltese time, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship, came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a press release. “Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull. [. . .] 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.”
An FFC spokesperson, Caoimhe Butterly, later told Reuters that the ship was struck en route to Malta, where it was scheduled to pick up other activists, among them climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and retired US Army Colonel Mary Ann Wright. The group said it had arranged the aid shipment “under a media black out to avoid any potential sabotage.”
The FFC also shared footage which allegedly shows the aftermath of the strike, with smoke and flames seen on the ship. At one point in the brief video, an apparent explosion can be heard.
In a second press release, the group later shared a photo of the damage sustained in the strike.
Maltese authorities said they received an SOS call from a vessel in international waters soon after midnight local time, adding that a nearby tugboat assisted the ship, according to Reuters. Officials added that the crew of the Conscience declined to board the tugboat, and also confirmed to CNN that the fire on the ship had been extinguished. No casualties have been reported in the attack.
The FFC press release added that “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade [on Gaza] and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”
In a social media post early on Friday, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said she “received a distressed call from the people of the Freedom Flotilla that is carrying essential food and medicine to the starving Gaza population.”
“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,” she added.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the incident, but said it was looking into reports about the attack, according to the BBC. Israel’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
The FFC mission aimed to bring supplies to Gaza some two months into a heightened blockade by Tel Aviv, whose forces have leveled much of the territory in air and ground operations in response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said aid operations in Gaza were on the verge of “total collapse” thanks to the blockade.
In 2010, a similar humanitarian aid flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, a Turkish org, was attacked by Israeli forces in international waters. Nine people were killed in the assault, with another later dying of their injuries, while dozens more were wounded. A UN report later found that all 10 activists had sustained gunshot wounds, and added that “the circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution.”
* Will Porter is assistant news editor and book editor at the Libertarian Institute, and a regular contributor at Antiwar.com. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.
Gaza Aid Flotilla Attacked by Drones in International Waters; Organizers Blame Israel
May 2, 2025
A ship carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in its hull and cut off communication with those aboard. “We are dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship,” retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla, tells Democracy Now! “While we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel.”
The climate activist Greta Thunberg was also set to join the flotilla and said in an online video that activists would “continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor.”
Transcript
NERMEEN SHAIKH: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Nermeen Shaikh in New York, with Amy Goodman in Baltimore. Hi, Amy!
AMY GOODMAN: Hi, Nermeen. And welcome to all our listeners, readers and viewers around the country and around the world. I’m here in Baltimore, where thousands are attending the national meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace. Last night, among those who spoke was the Detroit Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American congressmember, and also the civil rights legend Angela Davis, who will be joining us live on the broadcast later.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In the Mediterranean, a ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza sent out a distress signal overnight after it was bombed by drones in international waters near Malta. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organized the voyage, is blaming Israel for the attack, which set the ship on fire, punched a substantial breach in the hull and cut off communication with those aboard. The Maltese government said 12 crew members and four civilians were confirmed safe after a nearby tug helped put out the flames.
Dozens of international activists were preparing to board the boat and head to Gaza. Just before the broadcast, Democracy Now! reached retired U.S. colonel and former State Department official Ann Wright, who was in Malta waiting to board the flotilla.
ANN WRIGHT: My name is Ann Wright, retired Army colonel, a former U.S. diplomat, and I’m here in Malta with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. And this morning, early, just after midnight, two drones struck our Gaza freedom ship called the Conscience that was in international waters off Malta.
And if you remember, we’ve been sending ships to challenge the Israeli illegal naval blockade of Gaza since 2008. And actually, 15 years ago, in 2010, was when the Marvi Marmara was attacked by the Israelis, and 10 people killed and 50 wounded. I was on one of the smaller boats that were part of that flotilla. And since then, we’ve sent over 35 boats to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza. And now our flotilla is challenging not only that blockade, that has kept all of the food and water and everything out of Gaza now for almost a month and a half, on the genocide, that the U.S. is complicit of, the Israeli genocide of at least 55,000, 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and then the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
But right here, we are in Malta dealing with a brutal attack on an innocent ship, a ship that was at anchor or outside in territorial waters waiting for us, the activists, to come on board, so that we could then head toward Gaza to say to the world that here are some citizens that are willing to take action. Where our governments fail to act, we, the citizens, are trying to act to bring international attention to what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. And to be attacked by two drones that caused massive damage to to our ship called the Conscience, to see that the — while we cannot yet identify the source of the drones, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a history of violence that has been directed toward the flotillas from the state of Israel, and probably the complicity of the United States in it, and probably part of NATO, too.
So, we are here to stand up for the people of Gaza, for the people of the West Bank, as international humanitarians and human rights defenders, when we see a genocide going on in Gaza. We have people from 22 nations. We’ve got young and old, and we’ve got people of note. We have Yvonne Ridley, who’s one of the great authors. We have a very young person, Greta Thunberg, and two of her friends from Sweden, who have been doing Palestine solidarity work in Sweden and wanted to be a part of this. So, we have the very young, and we have the older folks, too. We have people that are from the Global South, from Argentina, from Chile, from Venezuela, from Colombia, from Brazil. We have people that are all over Europe, all over North America. So, it’s a good crew that we have here. Our Malaysian contingent has been here. And we’ve got great heart and great spirit for the people of Palestine, which is the focus of these flotillas, to bring attention to the illegal, criminal acts that the state of Israel is doing on Palestine.
AMY GOODMAN: That was retired U.S. colonel Ann Wright speaking in Malta about the Gaza aid flotilla that was just attacked by drones last night. The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who she mentioned, also was preparing to join that flotilla in Malta.
GRETA THUNBERG: For two months now, not a single bottle of water has entered Gaza, and it’s a systematic starvation of 2 million people. And Palestinians have been resisting the unimaginable oppression for decades. And the silence and the passivity, largely, from the outside world is completely deadly. And we all have a moral responsibility to act against that and to do our part to demand accountability for war criminals and our own governments’ complicity in this genocide and illegal occupation and siege
The ship is currently still, as far as I know, at the location where it was attacked, because if it would move, too much water would come in, and it would sink. So, that is where we are right now. What happens now is uncertain, but what is certain is that us human rights activists will continue to do everything in our power to do our part to demand a free Palestine and demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor, the coming days and the coming months and years.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Swedish activist Greta Thunberg speaking in Malta, where she was preparing to join the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was attacked by drones last night.
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