The Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday that the attack occurred the day before against one of the ships of the Global Sumud Flatilla, moored at the port of Sidi Bou Saïd, constitutes a “premeditated act”. According to the official press release, the Tunisian authorities conduct all the surveys necessary to identify the managers, whether planners, accomplices or performers, and make public conclusions “in Tunisia as in the whole world”.
Two ships targeted in 48 hours
This incident occurs while two boats in the flotilla have been successively targeted in the space of 48 hours. Tuesday evening, the ship Almaparked at the quay, was targeted by an alleged drone, according to activists. No injuries were reported and the crew confirmed the absence of major structural damage. Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for occupied Palestinian territories, denounced “a second attack on the flotilla, still in Tunisian waters”, evoking the drop in a incendiary device by a drone without light. Tunisian activist Wael Naouar, for its part, estimated that these events “strengthen the mobilization and determination of the crews to continue the road to Gaza”.
The day before, Monday, September 8, the largest building in the flotilla, the Familyhad already been affected by a fire at the front. Witnesses claim to have seen a drone fly over the ship before dropping an incendiary machine. Surveillance videos circulating on social networks seem to reinforce this version. The Ministry of the Interior had, however, mentioned, initially, the track of an accidental fire departure “probably caused by a cigarette”, before officially qualifying the premeditated attack in its latest press release.
Determination in the face of pressures
For the organizers of the flotilla, these repeated aggressions cannot hinder the humanitarian mission of the Global Sumud Flotilla. With twenty ships from 44 countries, this international initiative aims to break the blockade imposed in Gaza and to deliver symbolic aid to the Palestinians. Activists, as Tunisian Wael Naouar recalled, consider that these attacks only strengthen their determination to reach Gaza, at all costs.
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