A ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in an attempt to break Israel’s blockade was fired upon by drones in international waters off the coast of Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the organisation that organised the mission.
Drones hit Gaza aid ship in international waters
In a statement released on Friday, the FFC said the ship, which is currently 14 nautical miles (25 km) off Malta, was targeted by two drone strikes as it was heading for Gaza. The ship was attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, where, according to warnings from humanitarian organisations, people are struggling to survive after two months of complete blockade by Israel.
“Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,” the organisation said.
The statement did not directly accuse Israel of carrying out the attack.
However, it called for “the Israeli ambassadors to be summoned and urged to answer for violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.” Israel has not commented on the drone strikes.
Nicole Jenes of the FFC told Al Jazeera that the attack on the Conscience at 12:23 p.m. local time (10:23 a.m. GMT) on Friday morning punched a hole in the hull of the ship and set the engine on fire. As a result of the strike, 30 Turkish and Azerbaijani activists on board began desperate attempts to pump out water and keep the ship afloat, she added.
The group’s statement said that after the SOS signal was sent, a ship was dispatched from southern Cyprus.
Later on Friday, the Maltese government said the fire on the ship had been contained and that the vessel was under the supervision of the authorities. It is unclear whether the authorities intervened directly in extinguishing the fire and what happened to the activists.
Jenes, who is currently in Malta, said the group was unaware of the situation on board the ship as contact with the crew had been lost.
“They were hiding in the night in the rooms of the ship because they were afraid of the drones … We lost contact with them,” she said.
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote on X:
“Two months have passed since the latest orchestrated starvation of 2m Gazans by the “civilised” West (Israeli Apartheid is merely an appendage of the US and the EU – nothing more nothing less). Just so that we don’t forget.”
Victory over Hamas more important than returning hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that defeating the Palestinian Hamas movement was a more important goal in the war in Gaza than returning hostages held in the enclave.
The release of hostages was “a very important goal, but it has a higher one,” he said.
“It’s a very important goal. The war has a supreme goal, and the supreme goal is victory over our enemies, and this we will achieve,” Netanyahu said on Israel’s Independence Day.
According to Israeli authorities, 24 hostages and 35 bodies of those kidnapped remain in the Gaza Strip. Relatives of the hostages have long accused Netanyahu of risking the lives of the kidnapped in a military operation to break the Islamist group Hamas.
The mother of one of the kidnapped responded indignantly to Netanyahu’s comments, saying that she now wants to take Netanyahu to get her son back.
Hostages and Missing Families Forum whose motto is “bring them home now,” responded with shock to the comments.
“The return of the kidnapped must be no less important and also a top priority for the Israeli government,” the organisation said.
Palestine the world’s most dangerous place for journalists, RSF says
The compilers of the annual ranking of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) claim that “freedom of expression worldwide is at a historically low level.” The press freedom ranking, published on Friday, is based on five indicators: political context, legal framework, economic environment for the media, socio-cultural context and safety. Since 2022, Israel has dropped 26 places in the ranking, falling from 86th to 112th place. In the previous ranking, the country was in 101st place.
A country’s position in the ranking depends on how free journalists and the media are in general, and on what measures the country’s authorities take to create comfortable conditions for the press to work. Freedom of speech and the media are best in Norway, Estonia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The worst are Eritrea, North Korea, China, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Palestine ranked 163rd in the latest press freedom ranking, down six places compared to 2024.
