Has Malta been found to be complicit in an unprecendented strike by Israel on a Gaza aid ship off the Maltese coast?
Right, so has Israel escalated again in its efforts to keep aid out of Gaza by targeting an aid ship headed their way, but whilst it was still in international waters more than 2000km away off the coast of Malta? It seems so.
The ship in question, aptly called the Conscience belongs to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, or FFC, who are a grassroots initiative formed in 2010 in order to enact direct action missions to support the dignity and humanity of the Palestinian people and notably those living in Gaza, in order to break the now 17 year long blockade of Gaza itself, because of course, the events we witness today did not start on October 7th, nor even 17 years ago, but long before that.
So did Israel strike this vessel all the way across the Mediterranean in Maltese waters? Are they that desperate to stop aid getting to Gaza they’ll target shipping that far away, putting in perspective the response to Houthi shipping interference, if half the Med may now be considered unsafe and is it not the height of hypocrisy when something like this happens and Israel is itself begging for international aid at the same time to combat wildfires, all as the aid effort in Gaza now verges on collapse? Is it any wonder Israel is getting the blame and the backlash for this, as they stay uncustomarily silent on the matter?
Right, so in the early hours of this morning, the humanitarian aid ship Conscience, a refurbished trawler owned by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the FFC, was reportedly attacked by drones in international waters near Malta. The assault, which occurred just after midnight local time, struck the ship causing a breach in the hull and setting the ships engine ablaze, leaving the ship disabled, currently stabilised and at anchor but at risk of sinking if moved. At time of writing, Israel has not taken responsibility for the strike, nor has anyone else, but the FFC and various media outlets have attributed the attack to Israeli forces, given the context and history of similar incidents and notably the ships mission and where it was headed. It’s been a simple question of who had motivation to stop the ship, but as time has worn on over the last 24 hours it has become clear that Israel are behind the attack.
The FFC is a grassroots movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from around the world, united in their mission to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. Since its inception in 2010, the coalition has organized multiple flotillas aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and highlighting the humanitarian crisis resulting from the blockade. Their actions are grounded in principles of nonviolence and solidarity with the Palestinian people, without affiliation to any political party or organisation.
This isn’t the first time they have been attacked by Israel either. In 2010 Israeli forces in speedboats forcibly boarded the vessels and following resistance on one of the boats, nine FFC activists were killed.
In 2018 the FFC organised another venture, the Just Future For Palestine Flotilla, consisting of two ships, the Al Awda and the Freedom.
