Social media users condemned Israel’s drone strike on the vessel and demanded international action
By Ghalia Mohamed
2 May 2025
Social media has erupted in anger after Israeli drones struck a ship with 30 rights activists and humanitarian aid headed for the besieged Gaza Strip.
Friday’s attack appeared to target the ship’s generator, causing a fire and power outage on the ship while it was in international waters near Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a coalition of nonviolent activists campaigning to end the Israeli siege on Gaza, which organised the mission.
The organisers said they had been operating under a media blackout to “limit Israeli sabotage” in their attempt to deliver aid to the war-torn enclave, where Israel has blocked the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine for two months.
Israel’s attack on the ship, the Conscience, sparked fierce condemnation online, as well as calls on international leaders to take action.
“Where’s the condemnation? Where’s the action? The hypocrisy is sickening, and the violence is unforgivable,” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations posted: “Genocide in Gaza was apparently not enough for the Israeli government, which is now committing acts of state terrorism on a global scale.
“From bombing a humanitarian aid flotilla in international waters to bombing Damascus near the Syrian presidential palace, the war criminals of the Israeli government are completely out of control.”
Another user wrote that Israel was “redefining what it means to be a rogue state”.
An unarmed ship from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, was attacked by drones in international waters near Malta, causing a fire and a significant breach in the hull. We are witnessing the worst of humanity, met with the silence of far too many.
— Carlos Azevedo (@cprazevedo) May 2, 2025
A Palestinian from Gaza posted that his heart was “breaking with sorrow” as he knew “actly what it means for a ship carrying hope – not weapons – to be attacked”.
“The Freedom Flotilla came as a lifeline for people trapped in silence, and the response, as always, was fire, met with a painful international silence,” he wrote.
To ensure no aid reaches Gaza’s wounded and starving. There are no words to describe such cruelty. https://t.co/5kBuaRSojB
— Sonia Sikka (@SoniaSikka4) May 2, 2025
Since Israel halted all humanitarian aid into Gaza in early March, at least 95 percent of UN and international aid agencies have halted distributions after their warehouses ran dry, leaving the majority of Palestinians in Gaza food insecure and facing starvation.
Many people are surviving on one meal a day or less.
“No ally of Palestine is safe.”
One user argued that the strike signalled that rights advocates around the world campaigning for Palestinians were “not safe”.
“If Israel can get away with this… then no ally of Palestine, anywhere, is safe,” said David Adler of Progressive International. “The Flotilla strike was an attack on solidarity itself.”
You know how the US condemns Yemen for attacking ships taking weapons to Israel? Will the US condemn Israel for attacking the Freedom Flotilla ship on a humanitarian mission to Gaza? pic.twitter.com/ijcfJ52GUs
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) May 2, 2025
Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui, a scholar and activist, posted: “Let this serve as a lesson that any peaceful action against Israel will always be met with the same aggression that any violent resistance to its oppression is met with,” adding that the strike was “as much a war crime” as Israel’s 18-month assault on the Gaza Strip.
Others recalled Israel’s attack on a 2010 Freedom Flotilla mission organised by the Free Gaza Movement, the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms, and Humanitarian Relief Foundation, in which soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara and killed 10 activists.
“I have not forgotten how the first Freedom Flotilla in 2010 ended with israel killing activists onboard the Mavi Marmara,” said one user.
“I will never forget that. Fucked up world we live in, letting this all happen again!”
Also read
A Gangster state: Israelis bomb humanitarian ship outside Malta!
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