A ship carrying aid and volunteers heading for Gaza was attacked by drones in international waters off Malta early Friday, the group organizing the mission said.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the aid group running the mission, blamed Israel for the attack but did not provide evidence for that allegation. NBC News’ reached out to the Israel Defense Forces and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but did not immediately receive any response.
The attack came exactly two months after Israel, on March 2, imposed a full blockade on the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza including food, medicine, and other critical supplies.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition posted video footage on X early Friday showing a fire on the Conscience — the name of the vessel hit by the alleged drone attack — with volunteers from over 21 countries having boarded in Malta for the mission to Gaza.
“On the morning of their scheduled departure, the vessel was attacked,” the organizers said in a statement Friday, adding that the ship issued an SOS distress signal shortly after armed drones caused a fire and a substantial breach in the hull.
“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 group added.
The Maltese government said everyone involved in the aid mission was “confirmed safe” after it carried out a rescue operation. “The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported,” it said in a statement Friday.
Images released by the Maltese government showed a tug vessel putting out a fire on a vessel following the alleged drone attack.
The Conscience was “17 kilometers from the shore of Malta, [when it] was attacked by two drones,” Yasemin Acar, one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, told NBC News from Malta shortly before the group posted the video online and a rescue operation was carried out on the vessel.
Acar said the struck vessel had initially been sailing with a flag registered to the Pacific island nation of Palau, but that the country’s government had removed permission for its flag’s use.
Before the rescue of those on board was successfully executed, Acar said that “there is panic… Of course, everyone is in shock. Everyone is scared.”
Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said in a post on X Friday that 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,” she added.
Senior Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti accused the Israeli government of “behaving like a pirate” and “violating all international law with impunity” in a post on X Friday.
While Freedom Flotilla Coalition did not cite evidence for its allegations against Israel and the country’s government did not respond to the accusations, there have been previous instances of Israeli forces preventing activists from shipping aid to Gaza.
In 2010, a flotilla on a similar mission was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops near the coast of Gaza. Israeli forces’ use of force resulted in the deaths of nine people on board and multiple others were wounded, a panel established by the U.N. Secretary General said.
Since Israel launched its offensive in the enclave following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks, more than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose numbers are described as reliable by the World Health Organization.tt
Some 1,200 people were killed during the militant group’s attacks in southern Israel, with around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
International aid groups and NGOs have said that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached its worst level in 18 months and that aid systems are on the verge of collapse.
While Israel is obligated to meet the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza under its control under international humanitarian law, the United Nations-run World Food Programme last week said it had run out of food in its warehouses in Gaza and warned of mass starvation in the besieged enclave that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
In video footage by NBC News’ crew on the ground in the Mawasi neighborhood in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, children stood in a narrow alley holding empty pots at the Rafah Charitable Kitchen — the only soup kitchen serving the displaced in the area.
“We sleep hungry and wake up hungry. We eat nothing, only water to fill our stomachs,” 10-year-old Asmaa Al-Kurd told NBC News.
“I spend all my time waiting in line just to bring food for my family,” she added.
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