The Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) ship carrying urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, was attacked by armed “suicide” drones in international waters 14 nautical miles off the coast of Malta, on May 2.
FFC volunteers from more than 21 countries travelled to Malta to board the mission to Gaza, including prominent figures such as Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.
Helen O’Sullivan, an Australian FFC participant, told Green Left that the drone attacks on the Conscience “should concern us all”.
“The Conscience was legally and peacefully sitting off the coast of Malta on its way to open a humanitarian corridor to allow food and medical supplies into Gaza. More than 80 human rights and peace activists were meant to have joined their counterparts at the time of the attack," O'Sullivan said.
“I am a grandmother with eight beautiful grandchildren. I miss them, but right now there are thousands of grandparents, just like me, in Gaza watching helplessly as their children die. At the same time, powerful and wealthy people like Netanyahu, Trump and — yes — even our own government, look at Gaza as a slice of real estate and its people as expendable commodities.”
Attack
On the morning of the mission’s scheduled departure, however, armed drones attacked the unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and inflicting substantial damage to the hull. The strikes hit the ship’s generator, leaving the crew without power, emergency systems and communications. Four people were injured.
FFC volunteers, who attempted to provide assistance to the Conscience, were prevented from doing so and threatened with arrest by the Maltese military, which blocked the vessel from moving.
Eventually, Maltese authorities, accompanied by representatives from the Turkish embassy, took the participants on the Conscience to Malta’s airport, where they were flown home. At the time of writing, the crew remain on the ship, which is still in international waters.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack but, according to the Times of Malta, an Israeli C-130 Hercules military aircraft was tracked as it left Israel and circled Malta, hours before the Conscience was attacked.
International human rights activists were on a nonviolent humanitarian mission to challenge Israel’s illegal and deadly siege of Gaza, and to deliver desperately needed lifesaving aid.
Oxfam, the United Nations, Palestine Red Crescent Society and other human rights organisations all report that people in Gaza are struggling to find safe drinking water and food, with facilities bombed to pieces or unable to operate since Israel cut the last remaining electricity supplies for sanitation facilities.
Backup generators are of little use because there is no fuel. The prices of what little food is available have skyrocketed and many people are at risk of starvation.
Starvation as warfare
Since March 2 — for more than two months — Israel has prevented aid trucks from entering Gaza; deliberately starving more than 2 million civilians is a war crime. Experts estimate the population in Gaza requires at least 600 aid trucks each day to meet the most basic needs. Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said Israel is “using starvation as a method of warfare” in Gaza.
Israel has also repeatedly issued forced displacement orders to civilians since March 18. About 70% of the Gaza Strip, or more than 500,000 people, are under displacement orders or “no go” zones, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Many people have been pushed into inhospitable, unsafe and inaccessible areas.
“People are in terror, fearing for their lives as displacement orders tell them, with little notice, to move with whatever they can carry,” said Oxfam’s Clemence Lagouardat.
“The restrictions on internal movement are also making it very difficult to carry out vital, life-saving work [and] with so many people displaced, the strains on dwindling resources and operational needs are massive.”
US intensive care nurse Wally Massay, who worked in Gaza’s hospitals on the front lines of Israel’s genocidal war, including the Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Indonesia hospital told MintPress News on May 5 that Israel is carrying out a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. The injuries he dealt with included “[a] lot of gunshot wounds, a lot of straight shots to the head, to the chest, or to the groin, especially for boys”.
Israel announced its plan to “intensify” its genocidal war of occupation in Gaza on May 6. Operation Gideon’s Chariots will “include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the strip’s population” purportedly to “protect them”, Israeli military spokesperson, Brigadier General Efi Dufferi told The Guardian.
Israel said it will establish a “sustained presence” in Gaza, with the far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich telling Israelis to embrace “occupation”. Israel has embraced United States president Donald Trump’s plan to “voluntarily” displace Gazans from their land.
The Times of Malta reported on May 6 that days before the drone attack on the Conscience, Israel wrote to Malta asking it not to allow the vessel access to its territorial waters or to allow it to and detain it because it had no certification, according to Arnold Cassola, a leader of the country’s Momentum party.
Palau — whose flag the Conscience was registered under — removed the ship from its register just a day before the attack, while the ship was in international waters.
Under international maritime law and conventions, Malta is obliged to act and ensure the safety of a civilian ship in distress within its proximity. However, the FFC said the “lack of response and information about the rescue efforts” following the attack, “breaches international customary law”.
At the time of writing, Malta was refusing to allow the Conscience to enter its waters, while agreeing to help with repairs to the ship.
The FFC is calling for Israeli ambassadors to answer for their country’s violations of international law, including the blockade on Gaza and the bombing of its civilian vessel in international waters.
Nakba
May 15 marks 77 years since the start of al Nakba (the catastrophe), when Palestinians were driven from their homeland by Zionist forces, following the declaration of the state of Israel. From 1947–49, at least 750,000 Palestinians were made refugees outside their borders, as Zionist forces took control of more than 78% of historic Palestine. More than 500 villages and cities were ethnically cleansed and 15,000 Palestinians killed in a series of mass atrocities.
Protests to mark the Nakba anniversary are planned across Australia and the world.
O’Sullivan said “silence is their greatest weapon” and called on everyone with a conscience to act.
“It is not just our ship the Conscience which is under attack, the world’s conscience is being eroded by a failure to intervene, protest and defend human rights and dignity.
“The rich and powerful frame these crimes against humanity as ‘self defence’, making the real horror of what we are witnessing more digestible for those already blessed with more than they need. Let’s emerge from our media induced slumber and connect with those who will not stay quiet in the face of genocide.”