Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that strikes be carried out against two ships participating in an aid flotilla to Gaza last month, according to a new report.
CBS News reported that the two strikes, which targeted two ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla, were carried out through drones that launched from submarines while the vessels were anchored off the coast of Tunisia on September 8 and 9.
The report states that the drones dropped incendiary devices onto the ships.
Related Articles
CBS News says it reached out for comment from the Israel Defense Forces, but did not receive one.
“Confirmation of Israeli involvement would not surprise us,” the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement, adding that “whether the purpose of these attacks was to kill us, scare us away, or disable our boats, they recklessly endangered civilians and humanitarian volunteers.”
The first alleged Israeli drone strike occurred on September 8, targeting the Portuguese-flagged Family. According to the report, the Global Sumud Flotilla claims that the previous night, Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortagua was present.
The next strike took place the following day, targeting the British-flagged Alma. In both instances, damage was caused to the vessels, but no one was killed or wounded.
⚡️BREAKING:
Footage shows the moment the Sumud Flotilla was bombed by a drone in Tunisia’s coast.
The “Family Boat,” carrying steering committee members under the Portuguese flag, was struck by a suspected drone. This is the boat that carries the same people who were on the
Last month, Alessandro Mantovani, a journalist from the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano who joined the flotilla, told Haaretz that some of the vessels were attacked by stun grenades dropped from drones.
“I woke up to a loud noise, it made a flash, but it didn’t seem very dangerous,” he said. “I don’t think they tried to kill or sink the boats. In our opinion, they tried to harm the sails.”
Israeli naval commando forces intercepted on Friday the last remaining vessel in the Global Sumud Flotilla. The last boat, Marinette, had been trailing behind the other vessels and was still sailing toward Palestinian territory in the early hours of Friday, a day after the Israeli navy stormed 41 other boats in the flotilla and detained the activists, saying they would be deported.