In the early hours of May 2, the humanitarian ship Conscience was attacked by a drone strike while in international waters off the coast of Malta. The Conscience—which belongs to a group of organizations aiming to break the siege on Gaza called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC)—had finally been permitted to leave the port of Türkiye three months ago, and was headed toward Malta to pick up dozens more activists before attempting to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza. Aboard were 12 crew members and six activists from Türkiye, including the president of the Mavi Marmara Association, İsmail Songür, whose father was killed alongside eight other Turkish citizens in the 2010 Israeli attack on a similar humanitarian ship called the Mavi Marmara.

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the attack, and organizers have said they can’t confirm with full certainty that Israel was responsible. But the available evidence is quite damning. According to Maltese parliamentarians, days before the attack, the Israeli government requested that Malta refuse entry to the humanitarian ship and not release it if it did enter their territory. And, according to Drop Site News, shortly before the attack, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which is a military aircraft used by the Israeli air force and can easily deploy the type of drones that hit the Conscience—hovered over the capital of Malta before heading to the region where the ship was located.

“We are on the Conscience ship. They just attacked the ship with drones a few minutes ago and the front of the ship is damaged,” Songür said in a video shared online, moments after the vessel was attacked. “I am speaking especially to Israel. Whatever you are trying to do, you will never succeed.… all of humanity has risen up”

The video showed the ship filling with a haze of smoke as those on board coughed and muttered panicked prayers.  “We can’t go anywhere, our generators are blown. And yet, no matter what happens, we will see this struggle through to the end,” Songür said in a subsequent video.

Thiago Ávila, a member of the FFC steering committee, was one of the 60 people from over 20 countries —including international activists like Greta Thunberg, parliamentarians, Hollywood actors, and more—who were waiting in Malta to board the ship in the next phase of the mission. Most of those aboard the ship were asleep when they were shaken awake by the first attack, which was followed by a second attack minutes later that started a fire. The drones also hit a generator, killing power and flooding the bottom of the ship. The fire lasted for roughly three hours before it was put out by a nearby tugboat, which the Maltese government claims they dispatched.

The tugboat operators initially asked those on board to evacuate the ship instead of putting out the fire, Ávila told me. When the passengers refused to abandon the vessel, the tugboat circled the boat for another 50 minutes, even as those on board pleaded for firefighting help. After the fire was put out, passengers asked for permission to enter the Maltese ports, where they could safely complete repairs and continue their mission, an ask that was rejected.

Following high-level negotiations between Malta and Türkiye, the Maltese government has since offered ro make repairs to the ship in international waters after completing a preliminary survey of the vessel, which they have not shared the full results of with FFC organizers, according to Ávila. While the activists have flown home to spend time with family in Türkiye, the crew has remained on board 14 nautical miles away from Malta to prevent further sabotage. Ávila told me the group is at a stalemate with the Maltese government, which won’t allow the boat to dock in Malta for organizers to access the ship or bring new crew in.

Huwaida Arraf, a spokesperson for US Boat to Gaza, a member of the FFC, told me that those aboard suspected there was radio interception in the immediate aftermath of the attack. While those on the ship were calling for help, they could simultaneously hear an unfamiliar voice saying, “We are okay, we don’t need help,” Arraf told me. Arraf, who was aboard the Challenger, the vessel that was right next to the Mavi Marmara, and responsible for communication with the Israeli Navy during that mission, said that something similar had happened in 2010. After the attack, Israel had released recordings supposedly from the ship’s radio of people saying “antisemitic and “anti-American” things—which they later admitted were doctored.

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The coalition is now demanding an independent survey and forensic analysis of the boat from the United Nations or another third party to determine what exactly happened in the attack. It is also requesting a dignified solution for the mission, requesting that Malta allow a safe, unhindered passage of the ship. And finally, that Malta and the European Union break their silence and condemn the attack, and be unequivocally clear in their opposition to the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza.

This attack also fits into a narrative of Israel “pushing the limit,” Arraf said. Because such an attack only receives a “slap on the wrist,” like the condemnation from Türkiye, Israel continues to escalate. Ávila told me that it’s a miracle that those on board were only minimally injured. if the attack had happened five hours later, after the rest of the activists had boarded, people would have likely been killed. But Ávila, who has a one-year-old daughter at home, is set to continue the mission. “If we have the boat repaired, we will go tomorrow,” he told me. “Our bravery is a fraction of the bravery of the Palestinian people.”

The Freedom Flotilla has been preparing to head toward Gaza since at least last spring, but has been continuously delayed by bureaucratic sabotage. Guinea-Bissau pulled its flags from the flotilla, including from a cargo ship loaded with over 5,000 tons of aid, before it was due to set sail last April, and the Turkish Ministry of Transport refused to let the vessel leave the Haydarpaşa port in Istanbul for months.

Starting in September, activists led 24-hour protests at the port to demand the release of their ships, and in exchange for an end to the encampment,  Türkiye eventually allowed the release of Conscience. A day before the attack, their second flag-provider, Palau, also revoked their flag rights. Arraf said that countries are afraid of sanctions from the United States in the case that they support the coalition, in addition to the threats from Israel. “We are fighting this whole international order that is dominated by Western nations, who are trampling international law and making us watch the destruction of the Palestinian people,” Arraf told me.

“Israel is not only just a problem for Palestine and the Middle East. It is now a problem for Europe too. Israel is a problem for the peace of the entire world.” Songür said in another video posted to X. “God is our witness, all of our efforts are to bring those kids dying of starvation [in Gaza] one sip of water and one piece of bread.… If we have the opportunity, we will prepare new convoys and flotillas. …if we don’t have the opportunity, we will set out with bikes and reach those borders…. with or without a ship, we will open the roads that lead to Gaza.”

The ships left at the earliest opportunity to do so, organizers told me, but the situation in Gaza is growing with urgency everyday, and the need for humanitarian aid has never been more dire. The man-made famine in Gaza has reached “catastrophic” proportions as Israel has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid, medicine, food, and other basic needs for over 60 consecutive days, and the United Nations World Food Programme announced that it has run out of food.

“Why are we letting a country charged with genocide decide what food people can get? What medicine they get?” Arraf said. She urged everyone in the international community to challenge the blockade, including the hundreds of trucks lined up in Egypt, waiting idly outside the Rafah border. “They’ve killed us before, and they’ve bombed us before,” Arraf told me. “But the prospects of not doing anything are a lot scarier, and more dangerous.”