What multiple videos tell us about Monday’s alleged strike on Gaza-bound flotillapublished at 11:34 British Summer Time
11:34 BST
Richard Irvine-Brown and Sherie Ryder
BBC Verify
This morning we are looking into fresh claims of an attack against a flotilla of ships bound for Gaza, attempting to deliver aid.
Organisers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say a fire broke out on one of its vessels – Alma – on Tuesday night following an alleged attack.
It comes after the organisers alleged another boat, Family, had been attacked the previous day.
We authenticated five videos that gave us a well-rounded picture of what happened.
In one video, filmed from on board the Family, smoke can be seen coming from the vessel’s port bow.
The person filming claims they have been struck by what appears to be a drone, and the boat is on fire.
We know the vessel is the Family, as many elements – a ladder, the black stripes on the rear of the bridge, the signalling light on the starboard side, the awning and structures at the stern – are all the right size and in the right place compared with recent photographs of the ship.
Image source, Telegram / Global Sumud Flotilla
Second, CCTV from a different boat shows the boat that was struck – which is the right size and shape for the Family.
It also helps that the lights seen in the distance on the coast can be used to corroborate the known position of the Family at the time according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.
Using those references we can say the ship is off the Tunisian coast, near the capital Tunis.
Three further CCTV videos from the Family tie all this together.
The explosion is at the port bow, the lights of Tunis are in the right place, the timecode from these match the CCTV on the other vessel.
Plus, in the two cameras looking behind the Family we can see the second boat in the right position to have filmed the moment of impact.