Above photo: Maltese government.
The attack comes as a food crisis in Gaza is worsening.
Due to Israel’s total siege and closure of all border crossings.
An Israeli drone bombed a Freedom Flotilla aid vessel that was en route to Gaza early on 2 May, blowing a hole through the ship, causing a fire, and putting it at risk of sinking.
BREAKING: At 00:23 Maltese time, a #FreedomFlotilla ship was subjected to a drone attack. The front of the vessel was targeted twice, resulting in a fire and a breach in the hull. The ship is currently located in international waters near #Malta. An #SOS distress signal was sent. pic.twitter.com/J6oEQafuOb
— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) May 2, 2025
The ship was transporting humanitarian aid, 12 crew members, four civilian passengers, and dozens of rights activists. It was in international waters off Malta and had reportedly set off from Tunisia.
The Maltese government released a statement confirming that the crewmembers were brought to safety and that the ship remains in international waters. No injuries were reported.
“At 00:23 Maltese time, a Freedom Flotilla ship was subjected to a drone attack. The front of the vessel was targeted twice, resulting in a fire and a breach in the hull,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement earlier, adding that an SOS distress signal was sent.
CNN cited a Freedom Flotilla Coalition media official saying the strike caused the vessel to start sinking.
Zaher al-Birawi, head of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israeli drones were responsible for the attack.
The Freedom Flotilla’s media team said Cyprus was the only one to respond to the distress signal.
Israeli media outlet Channel 12 reported last year that Israeli forces began training exercises for a potential interception of the flotilla.
In 2010, Israeli commandos raided a group of Freedom Flotilla ships with helicopters as they were carrying aid and headed towards Gaza to break the siege. The commandos killed nine Turkish civilians and injured 30 others of several nationalities.
The new attack comes as all border crossings to Gaza remain shut, with the flow of aid into the strip completely halted.
Hospitals across the enclave are on the brink of total collapse due to the lack of desperately needed medical supplies, making it almost impossible to treat the scores of injured Palestinians arriving at medical centers on a daily basis.
“Throughout Gaza, food supplies are running dangerously low, and malnutrition is rapidly worsening. Last week, one partner screened 1,300 children in northern Gaza and identified more than 80 cases of acute malnutrition – a two-fold increase from previous weeks,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said last week.
The UN, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and other international organizations have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in blatant violation of humanitarian law.
Condemnations and call for investigation from experts following the attack on the Freedom Flotilla
The shocking attacks on the Conscience has caused reactions from many academics and experts. Collected below are quotes from prominent figures commenting on the horrific attacks:
We live in an time where ships carrying the most advanced weaponry in the world pass freely, and ships carrying urgent humanitarian aid to a starving population burn. ‘Israel is willing to bomb humanitarian ships to maintain its policy of starving the Palestinian people as a method of warfare.
– Dr Shahd Hammouri, University of Kent
Emergency: I 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.
– Franscesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Territories, on X
Assuming, as appears to be the case, that the attack is attributable to Israel, it signals a clear violation of the right to life, as well as a war crime. It is only lucky that the measure has not claimed lives. The location of the attack in international waters proximate to Malta, requires urgent investigation and accountability. I expect maritime safety authorities too to reexamine their relations with Israel, due to the violation of the freedom of navigation, and the risk imposed upon the seafaring community in the Mediterranean.
– Itamar Mann, Associate Professor at the University of Haifa
Civil society across the globe has been filling the void left by state inaction. Eighteen activists aboard a humanitarian aid flotilla headed to Gaza, where food has not entered for 60 days and clean water has been deliberately targeted and deprived, have been attacked by Israeli drones. They are at risk of sinking. It is imperative to rescue them as well as to complete an enhance their mission of delivering life-saving aid to the besieged Palestinian people trying to survive a genocide.
– Noura Erakat, Associate Professor Rutgers University
A crime, within a crime, within a crime.
Attacking a peaceful vessel protected in international waters, in order to protect the heinous atrocities consequence of the war crime of starvation in Gaza, in order to forward the destructive conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruciton of a substantial part of the Palestinian national group in Gaza.
A crime to safeguard a war crime to advance the genocide.– Dr Luigi Daniel, Nottingham Law School
The global community must raise their voices in condemnation of the violent attack on the Freedom Flotilla and its passengers in international waters, off the coast of Malta, last night. The attack is a flagrant violation of international law and we must demand an investigation and full accountability.
The Freedom Flotilla represents Civil Society’s Solidarity with the People of Palestine. They are fulfilling an international legal and moral duty, to stop the genocide by breaking a deadly blockade currently causing mass starvation in Gaza, in the face of the utter failure of international institutions and governments to take the necessary action to bring the Israeli genocide, blockade, and deliberate starvation policy to an end. The global community must mobilize to ensure the Flotilla’s protection and the successful completion of its mission.
– Suzanne Adely, National Lawyers Guild President
The attacks on the humanitarian flotilla, on Gaza & the West Bank, on Lebanon & Yemen, on Palestinians & human rights defenders in the US, UK, Germany, and elsewhere in the West, on cyber-space & the high seas, are all part of the same genocide. Violent mobs of Zionists, lobbies, intel agencies, corrupt politicians, the capture of our institutions, the mobilization of state power against those resisting Zionist apartheid & genocide, and attacks on education in our own countries are all part of the same genocide. Truly, the struggle of the Palestinians is our struggle too. Fight this evil every day, everywhere.”
The Israeli regime has perpetrated yet another cold-blooded act and gross violation of international law in its attack on the flotilla, targeting humanitarians in international waters far from its shores, just as the ICJ conducts hearings on its violations. This is the arrogance of impunity. The endless impunity afforded to the regime by the U.S., UK, Germany and other complicit states is to blame for the regime’s ever expanding atrocities. The regime must be isolated, stopped, and held to account urgently- for the sake of all of us.
– Craig Mokhiber
