A drone has attacked the main ship of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Tuesday, also known as causing a fire on the roof. The scope of the damage is not serious, they indicate sources of the organization. The investigation indicates that the drone has launched a projectile and has triggered the flames, which have been suffocated minutes later. The boat was in the port of Tunisia, where Sunday arrived in half a great reception with hundreds of people. On board at the time of the attack there were six people of the crew that guarded to avoid possible sabotage, but none is injured. It is about Family, A ship with a Portugal flag in which the organization’s management committee travels and at the same time the visible faces of the mission, including or Thiago Ávila.
“A drone has attacked the ship Family tonight. The drone has fly over the boat, has released a bomb and has exploded, causing a fire, ”Yasmine Care, activist and member of the Flow District Committee and member of the Flotilla Address. International All the crew, including Thunberg, were arrested and deported from Tel Aviv.
The Global Sumud Flotilla has given an order to evacuate all ships of the mission, which were also being guarded by crew members and volunteers from various countries, mostly Tunisian, in fear of new attacks. However, several groups of people have decided to organize to try to protect vessels. Dozens of people with this purpose are currently in the port. Local authorities have also come to supervise the port.
“The acts of aggression destined to intimidate and derail our mission will not deter,” they point out from the Management Committee. Then, they add that the peaceful mission of breaking the blockade in Gaza, bringing humanitarian aid for its population and creating an operational corridor “continues with determination”.
Around 15 vessels arrived this Sunday afternoon at the port of Tunisia. They left Barcelona and, after a week sailing through the Mediterranean with various difficulties, they were received by hundreds of people shouted “Free Palestine” (free Palestine) while they waved the country’s flags.
The forecast before this attack was to regroup the flotilla in the Tunisian port, since there are at least seven vessels that are scheduled to arrive this Tuesday due to several breakdowns, to sail on Wednesday together the African flotilla. In total, it is estimated that around 40 ships could also leave, both in Italy and in Greece there are around a dozen ships prepared to join the flotilla on the high seas, so almost 60 vessels will try to reach Palestine to break the Israeli block.
UN Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, has denounced what happened on their social networks and has asked for “protection” of the local authorities to the two ships of the flotilla that they plan to reach throughout the morning. Albanese is in Tunisia and has come on Monday to several acts in support of the flotilla, in which the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, aboard one of the ships was also present.
Activist Greta Thunberg, upon arrival at the port of Tunisia, asked all those who listened to “keep their eyes in Gaza”: “A genocide is being committed that is being allowed and supported by governments and institutions that we have voted and that they supposedly represent us. That ends this complicity,” he added.
Difficulties of all kinds
The difficulties of the various vessels of the flotilla to fulfill their goal of reaching Gaza are being great. The weather conditions prevented the exit of the ships from Barcelona, delaying it to Monday. A storm hit the Catalan coast and caused a division of the flotilla, which decided to stop on the Balearic coast to regroup.
In parallel, mechanical and electrical problems were happening. The bad sea precipitated the failures in the engines, as happened in the Marinette, The sailboat in which the country is on board. After losing the engine, he suffered the consequences of a notable descent from the wind, leaving the ship drift at times and testing the spirits of the six people on board. Finally, with many difficulties, he was able to reach a port near Tunisia to be reviewed by a mechanic and evaluate the status of the boat.
The ships in which more than 250 people from 44 different countries travel are of very diverse sizes, since some are sailboats of about 12 meters in length with six or seven people on board, while other fishing and recreational ships exceed 20 meters and can house more than 25 people. All have very different characteristics, which, sometimes, complicates the navigation rhythm as a united flotilla. However, when several of the various participants in the mission are asked about how these complexities face, the answer is the same: “I could not stay at home and look the other way before the genocide in Gaza. We are on the correct side of the story.”
