Italy announced on Wednesday, September 24, sending a military frigate to help the flotilla to Gaza, who said he was attacked by the night drones attacked in Greece.
“To guarantee the assistance to Italian citizens present in the flotilla, I authorized the immediate intervention of the Fasan Frigate of the Military Navy, which was sailed to the north of Crete, and who addresses the area,” said Italian Minister Guido Crosetto in a statement.
For its part, the UN requested the opening of an investigation to shed light on this case and requested the cessation of “attacks” against the flotilla.
Originally “unidentified” drones
Italian defense minister Guido Crosetto said that the authors of this drone attack were “at the moment unidentified” and that Fasan frigate was deployed as part of the Italian maritime surveillance operation “Mare Sicuro.” For its part, Italian diplomacy asked Israel to guarantee the safety of the flotilla, remembering that it was “in international waters.”
Around sixty Italians, including four parliamentarians, are aboard the flotilla, which includes about fifty ships that carry several hundred activists from 45 countries, including Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg.
The Flotilla ships want to join the Gaza Strip to “break the Israeli blockade”, after two attempts blocked in June and July by Israel, which repeated this week that would not allow the ships to approach Gaza. Pro-Palestinian activists on board claimed to have been attacked at night from Tuesday to Wednesday by “multiple drones”, explosions to the key, out of Greece.
In a press release, the Global Sumud Flotilla said “multiple drones, unidentified objects that fell, revolts communications and explosions heard for several ships.”
Multiple attacks reported
Leaving at the beginning of Barcelona, on the Northeast Coast of Spain, the flotilla had already announced that it has been the subject of two drone attacks while anchored to Tunisia on September 9.
According to the German human rights activist Yasemin Care, five ships were attacked and “15 to 16 drones” were counted. The Polish deputy Franek Sterczewski told him on the social network X that there had been “13 attacks” in 10 ships in all, and that three of them had been “damaged.”
“We have no weapons. We do not represent any threat to anyone,” said Yaseminar in an Instagram video, emphasizing that the flotilla transported “only humanitarian aid.”
Israel imposed a blockade in the Gaza Strip, where its army has been fighting Hamas from the unprecedented attack against the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil, which caused the war.
Difficult research without finding the coastal guard
According to the Greek coasts interviewed by AFP, a patrolman from the European Frontex border agency approached one of the ships, without seeing damage.
“The operating room of the Coast Guard was informed of the incident around 02:30 am (local time, 1:30 in France). A frontx patrolman went to the scene. The sailboat was fine, there was no damage. People on board mentioned the incident, but it could not be established that it had really taken place,” said a deposit of the Greek guards of the coast.
She could not say if the alleged incident had occurred in international waters or not. Contacted at its headquarters in Warsaw, Frontex could not confirm or deny the incident at this time.
Israel said last Monday that it would not allow the flotilla to reach the Gaza dam to war, offering it to dock in Ashkelon, further north. The UN declared in August the state of famine in the Palestinian territory, devastated by war and subject to a strict blockade of Israel for almost two years.
On September 16, an International Research Commission ordered by the United Nations accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza.
According to the Hamas Government Ministry of Government in Gaza, the war has cost the lives of more than 65,000 Palestinians there, mostly civilians, in almost two years. The attack of October 7, 2023 of Hamas against Israel had resulted in 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to official data.
Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 47 are still retained in the Gaza Strip, 25 of which are considered dead by the Israeli army.
Source: BFM TV
