Aid Group Says Gaza Flotilla Struck By Drone. Here's What We Know

A boat sailing to Gaza as part of a flotilla that includes Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was struck by what organizers said was an incendiary device dropped by a drone while docked in Tunis. The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which has organized dozens of boats to sail to Gaza carrying humanitarian aid, said that one of its main vessels was targeted in a drone strike just after midnight local time on Tuesday while docked near the Tunisian capital.  GSF posted videos on social media showing the incident, later followed by a video showing damage to the vessel with burn marks on what appears to be the main deck. All six passengers and crew onboard the Family Boat, which flies the Portuguese flag, were reported safe and unharmed. Protestors were seen gathering at the port in Tunis following the incident. Tunisia’s interior ministry said reports of a drone hitting the boat “have no basis in truth,” and claimed instead that a fire broke out on the boat caused by a lighter or a cigarette butt. Read more: Journalists in Gaza Are Documenting Their Own Starvation Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian territories, suggested Israel may have been behind the attack, without providing evidence. “There is a history of attacks on the flotilla, there are current statements against the flotilla threatening [it] from Israel,” said Albanese, who lives in Tunis and spoke at the port on Monday night. The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TIME. The Flotilla set off from Barcelona last week and arrived at the Sidi Bou Said port on Sunday. GSF says that it “aims to break Israel’s illegal blockade” with the flotilla, the latest mission of its kind after Thunberg was amongst a dozen activists onboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship carrying aid to Gaza in June.  On that June mission, all passengers on board the flotilla were detained off the coast, taken to Israel and later deported. “Every single one of us has a moral obligation to do everything we can to fight for a free Palestine,” said Thunberg after being deported to France.  Israel has previously faced significant criticism for its response to prior flotilla missions bound for Gaza. In 2010, 15 Turkish activists were killed on board the Mavi Marmara by the Israeli military 40 miles off the coast of Gaza.  “We are all civilians. Every one of us is a civilian who is trying to break Israel’s blockade of one and a half million Palestinians,” said Greta Berlin, an organizer of the flotilla mission, after the incident. In Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces announced evacuation orders for the entire Gaza City, warning that the military will operate in the area with “great force”. IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee advised residents to “evacuate immediately” to the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone near the coast in southern Gaza. The latest evacuation orders for Palestinians in Gaza have raised concerns about continued displacement. “The Al Mawasi area is totally filled with people already. The coast is very expensive to find accommodation, and people may not be able to afford to leave their homes in Gaza City to move down to the south and find adequate shelter,” said Medical Aid for Palestinians Communications Officer Mai Elawawda on Tuesday in a statement shared with TIME. Elawada said that dozens of Palestinians had arrived in the area from northern Gaza on Tuesday morning without tents. Last week, the U.N. warned that continued displacement orders and increasing hostilities in Gaza would have “horrific humanitarian consequences.” “Many households are unable to move due to high costs and a lack of safe space to move to, with older people and those with disabilities especially affected,” said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), adding that 82,000 new displacement orders were issued between August 14 and 31.