On Monday night, social media was ablaze with reports that Swedish environmental/anti-Israel activist Greta Thunberg’s boat was struck by a bomb launched from a drone. Thunberg, who my colleague Ward Clark likes to call the “Doom Pixie,” is taking part in a civilian boat flotilla headed to Gaza to “break Israel’s naval blockade” of the Hamas-controlled territory.
News soon broke that although a fire broke out on the vessel, Thunberg and other activists were uninjured and were intent on completing their mission.
“The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) confirms that one of the main boats, known as the 'Family Boat' - that was carrying GSF Steering Committee members, was struck by what is suspected to be a drone.”
Now that everyone has confirmed to be safe, however, questions are arising about just what happened:
Tunisia's interior ministry said that reports of a drone hitting a boat at its Sidi Bou Said port "have no basis in truth", and that a fire broke out on the vessel itself.
The Portuguese-flagged boat, carrying the flotilla's steering committee, sustained fire damage to its main deck and below-deck storage, the GSF said in a statement.
Some reports indicate that there was no done strike at all—the activists accidentally lit their own craft on fire with a flare:
So far, there are still competing claims about what caused the incident, but there seems to be scant evidence that there was any hostile fire.
If an external strike occurred in Tunisian waters it could raise questions about a violation of Tunisian sovereignty and the safety of international civilians on aid missions; if, however, the fire was internal, it could point to safety lapses or accidental ignition.
The incident is under investigation, and available evidence so far is limited to videos released by GSF and statements from Tunisian authorities.
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One of the activists, Kurdish-German Yasemin (sometimes reported as Yasmin) Acar, had painted an ominous picture:
In one of GSF's first videos about the fire, member Yasmin said: "The Family Boat has been officially attacked. A drone came right above it, released a bomb and it exploded and the boat was on fire. Everyone on that boat is OK - the fire is out."
"They have bombed a boat once again with civilians on it, in Tunisian territory," she added. "This is an attack against Gaza because they don't want us there. So we need you to mobilize, let's not stay quiet."
Whether that’s actually what happened—or whether the activists set their own fire—has yet to be conclusively determined. “Questions remain,” as the saying goes.
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