SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
drones
Italy Deploys Naval Ship to Aid Sumud Flotilla Following Drone Attack
"States have a responsibility to ensure the safe passage of the flotilla," said Amnesty International.
Sep 24, 2025
The Italian government says it has sent a naval ship to assist the Global Sumud Flotilla after it was attacked by several drones.
Organizers of the flotilla said that the boats, which are carrying humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza, were attacked by a swarm of 15 drones early Wednesday morning, with the convoy in the Mediterranean Sea about 600 nautical miles from the enclave.
According to Drop Site News, at least eight attacks and six explosions were reported as flash bang grenades hit at least six of the boats. One person has been injured, and two of the boats have been damaged. They also reported that an "unidentified chemical device" was dropped onto one of the boats before falling off into the water.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Italy's defense minister Guido Crosetto said: "Regarding the attack suffered in recent hours by the Sumud Flotilla vessels, which also include Italian citizens, carried out using drones by currently unidentified perpetrators, we can only express the strongest condemnation. In a democracy, even demonstrations and protests must be protected when they are conducted in compliance with international law and without resorting to violence."
"To ensure assistance to the Italian citizens on the flotilla," Crosetto said that he had "authorized the immediate intervention of the Italian Navy's multi-purpose frigate Fasan," which he said was "already en route to the area for possible rescue operations."
The deployment comes after labor unions in Italy led a nationwide strike in solidarity with Gaza on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people in 75 cities and towns rallying to support Palestinians as well as the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Hundreds of other elected representatives to the European Union also issued calls on Wednesday for their own governments to provide protection to the flotilla.
While the perpetrator of the attack is not yet known, the flotilla organizers have suggested that "Israel and its allies" were responsible. Israel blocked two other efforts by activists to reach Gaza earlier this summer.
The flotilla's roughly 350 participants—which include humanitarians, doctors, journalists, lawyers, and other activists from at least 44 countries around the world—have repeatedly insisted that they are unarmed and that their goal is to peacefully protest Israel's siege of Gaza and deliver about 250 tons of food and medical aid to the people of Gaza, who are starving en masse under a near-total blockade by Israel.
On Tuesday, Israel's foreign ministry threatened to take "the necessary measures" to prevent what it described as the "Hamas flotilla" from breaking what it called a "lawful" blockade of Gaza.
In a statement posted to Instagram, the flotilla organizers said, "We welcome the recognition by Minister Crosetto of the democratic and non-violent nature of our mission, and his condemnation of the recent attacks on our vessels."
The group called on other UN member states, "in particular those whose nationals are aboard our ships—to ensure and facilitate effective protection, including maritime escorts, accredited diplomatic observers, and an overt protective state presence." The group emphasized that "such measures must remain protective and facilitative in nature, consistent with the principles of non-interference and the humanitarian purpose of our mission."
Israel ordered the group to turn over its humanitarian aid to Israel for it to be distributed in the strip. Organizers have refused to do this, arguing that Israel's blockade of aid, which has allowed only small amounts of aid into the strip, is illegal under international law.
Brazilian organizer Thiago Ávila, has said there is no reason to believe Israel's promises to distribute aid.
“We can never believe an occupying force who is committing genocide that they will deliver aid–it’s not in their interests,” Ávila said on his Instagram.
Last week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations released an extensive report concluding that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. This has included its blockade of aid entering the strip, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 400 people, including at least 145 children, with many dying in recent months.
At least 65,419 Palestinians have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023, and at least 167,160 have been wounded.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Amnesty International condemned the attacks on the flotilla and Israel's "threatening and dehumanizing statements" against its organizers, which it described as "a shameless attempt to intimidate them and their supporters."
"States have a responsibility to ensure the safe passage of the flotilla, especially as they have repeatedly failed to get Israel to comply with its most basic obligations to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have adequate access to food, water, medicine, and other supplies indispensable to their survival," Amnesty said. "They must step up pressure on Israel to ensure safe passage for the flotilla and to lift the blockade once for all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
11 Haitians—Including 8 Children—Killed in 'Kamikaze' Drone Strike on Birthday Party
"Who, ultimately, will assume responsibility for this attack: The prime minister? The transitional presidential council? Private security companies? The leadership of Haitian National Police?” asked one advocate.
Sep 23, 2025
A weekend attack by a pair of so-called "kamikaze" drones attributed to Haiti's fragile government killed at least 11 people including eight children, drawing widespread condemnation this week and demands for accountability.
The Miami Herald reported Monday that kamikaze drones, also known as suicide drones, targeted a party in Simon Pelé, a gang-controlled area in the Cité Soleil neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where Albert Steevenson, a gang leader also known as Djouma, was celebrating his birthday and handing out gifts to local children.
According to The New York Times, the first exploding drone killed three adults including a pregnant woman and eight children ages 2-10, and wounded six others. A second drone then exploded outside the gang's headquarters, killing four members and injuring others.
Mimose Duclaire, 52, told the Herald that children including her 4-year-old granddaughter Merika Saint-Fort Charles were playing outside when she heard an explosion.
"I heard a ‘boom’ and when I looked I saw her both of her knees were broken and her head was split open," Duclaire said.
"If they cannot effectively use the drones they need to stop their use."
Nanouse Mertelia, 37, told The Associated Press that she was inside her home when she heard an explosion and ran outside to see what was happening, because her son had just left to go get something to eat. That's when she saw her child on the ground with one of his arms and legs blown off.
“Come get me, come get me, please mama,” she said he told her, but it was too late. “By the time we got to the hospital, he died.”
There is still some uncertainty over who carried out the attack. There has been speculation that mercenaries from the private contractor Vectus Global, which was founded by Erik Prince—the founder and ex-CEO of the notorious mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater—was involved in the strike.
The Times previously reported that Haiti's government is working with Prince “to conduct lethal operations against gangs that are terrorizing the nation and threatening to take over its capital.”
According to the new Times reporting, it is unclear whether Prince's contractors or the Haitian National Police (HNP) were responsible for Saturday's massacre. Neither Prince nor the HNP have responded to Times' requests for comment.
Romain Le Cour, head of the Haiti Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told The Guardian Tuesday that the attack raises “urgent questions of accountability."
“It has now been [over] 48 hours since the incident, and the authorities have yet to issue any official communication or assume public responsibility," Le Court said. "Who, ultimately, will assume responsibility for this attack: The prime minister? The transitional presidential council? Private security companies? The leadership of Haitian National Police?”
Regardless of who committed the killings, they have sparked renewed focus on the use of kamikaze drones in Haiti. Pierre Esperance, who heads Haiti's National Human Rights Defense Network, told the Herald that—as in the case of the killing of two elite police officers in a drone strike last month—the culprit appears to be lack of coordination and oversight.
“We’ve always said that the use of drones have to be coordinated with the security forces,” Esperance said. “This is why you have collateral damage... If they cannot effectively use the drones they need to stop their use."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Families Demand Justice After US Admits Drone Strikes Killed Somali Civilians
"AFRICOM's perfunctory acknowledgment and empty condolences are not just underwhelming, they are a profound injustice," said the rights group Hūmānus, which represents two families of victims.
Sep 23, 2025
As the US has ramped up drone strikes in Somalia since President Donald Trump's return to power in January, the military has also confessed to some civilian deaths resulting from attacks conducted during his first term—but victims' families are demanding more.
Al Jazeera on Tuesday published interviews with two impacted family members. Abubakar Dahir Mohamed's 22-year-old sister, Luul Dahir Mohamed, and 4-year-old niece, Mariam, were killed on April 1, 2018. She left behind a son who is now 13.
The pair was traveling in a pickup truck with other passengers to a town where another brother lived. US Africa Command (AFRICOM) initially said it struck "five terrorists" and destroyed one vehicle, but later admitted an unnamed "mother and child" were killed.
As Al Jazeera detailed:
That day, according to media reports and Luul's family, US drones bombed the pickup truck. Immediately after, locals found several bodies in and around the site. Further down the road, about 60 metres (200 feet) away, was the lifeless body of Luul, clutching onto her child, whose small body was covered in shrapnel.
"When they fired on the vehicle, Luul made it out with her daughter. They knew it was a woman and child, and then they fired once again, killing them both in the second strike," Abubakar said from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
"The Americans claim to uphold human rights, but apparently, when it comes to people like my sister and niece, their lives don't matter."
The outlet also spoke with Mohamed Osman Abdi—whose 17-year-old niece, Nuro Kusow Omar, was killed in a February 2, 2020 strike that also injured another niece and his mother-in-law—and reported on letters that AFRICOM recently sent to Hūmānus, a nongovernmental organization representing both families.
Under "current Department of Defense guidelines and policies, US Africa Command determined it is not feasible to make a condolence payment in this matter," AFRICOM claimed in both letters.
In an email to Al Jazeera, AFRICOM said it assessed "mission objectives, cultural norms, local economic realities" as well as "the feasibility, safety, security, and logistics of making the payment itself," and made the decision based on the risk that the money could be "subject to confiscation, extortion, or unofficial taxation by terrorist or hostile insurgent groups."
Osman Abdi said that "it's a cheap excuse. They killed and maimed these people. Using fears of the money being extorted or confiscated is another way of saying the lives [lost] are worth nothing."
"It's painful and shows how desperate they are to rid themselves of any accountability," he added.
In a statement shared on the networking platform LinkedIn, Hūmānus also called out the United States. AFRICOM confirmed civilian harm from the strikes "after years of grueling advocacy," the group said. "This is a victory, yes, but a hollow one. It is a testament to the bravery of our clients and the tireless work of our team, tainted by the very system we were forced to navigate."
"AFRICOM's perfunctory acknowledgment and empty condolences are not just underwhelming, they are a profound injustice. Our clients have already navigated a long and arduous process exhausting every available channel, only to be met with a system designed to look the other way," Hūmānus continued. "The irony is palpable: While the US Congress has earmarked funds for ex gratia payments, these families—who deserve peace and closure—have been met with nothing but institutional indifference."
"This refusal to provide reparations compounds their trauma and sends a deeply troubling message to other victims and survivors around the world," the group added. "Reparations are not just about money; they are a formal recognition of the harm and a vital, final step toward a full stop for survivors. When this crucial component is absent, the so-called 'accountability process' reveals itself as little more than an elaborate exercise in futility."
According to the think tank New America, the US has conducted 410 strikes in Somalia since the George W. Bush administration, killing at least dozens of civilians. Most have occurred under Trump: 219 during his first term and 80 this year.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular