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Israel Accused of Drone Attack on 'Freedom Flotilla' Carrying Aid to Starving Gazans
"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters," said flotilla organizers.
May 02, 2025
A "Freedom Flotilla" vessel carrying humanitarian aid for starving Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip reportedly came under attack in international waters off the coast of Malta early Friday, with organizers accusing Israel of bombing the ship with armed drones.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said in a statement that drones attacked the front of its unarmed ship, the Conscience, twice, "causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull."
"The drone strike appears to have deliberately targeted the ship's generator, leaving the crew without power and placing the vessel at great risk of sinking," the coalition said. "On board are international human rights activists on a nonviolent humanitarian mission to challenge Israel's illegal and deadly siege of Gaza, and to deliver desperately needed, life-saving aid."
"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters," the coalition added.
Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, wrote in an email to The Washington Post that the group suspects Israel was behind the attack but can't "confirm 100%." The Israeli government has not commented on the accusations.
"Israel has threatened us and attacked us many times before, in 2010, killing 10 of our volunteers," wrote Arraf. "It is also the primary entity interested in keep[ing] us and any aid out of Gaza."
BREAKING: At 00:23 Maltese time, a #FreedomFlotilla ship was subjected to a drone attack. The front of the vessel was targeted twice, resulting in a fire and a breach in the hull. The ship is currently located in international waters near #Malta. An #SOS distress signal was sent.
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— Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@freedomflotilla.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reuters reported early Friday that "the Maltese government said the vessel and its crew were secured in the early hours of the morning after a nearby tug assisted with firefighting operations," but the outlet noted that organizers insisted the ship "was still in danger."
Climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg told Reuters that she was in Malta at the time of the reported attack on the Conscience and that she was planning to board the vessel to support the effort to deliver aid to Gazans, who have been struggling to survive under a suffocating two-month Israeli siege and relentless bombing.
On Friday, Amnesty International again called on Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza, saying that the Israeli government's "policy of deliberately imposing conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza calculated to bring about their physical destruction" amounts to "an act of genocide."
The U.S.-based peace group CodePink condemned the reported drone strike in a statement Friday.
"Retired Army Colonel, former diplomat, and our beloved board member Ann Wright, along with our long-time friend and co-founder's life partner, Tighe Barry, are part of this flotilla effort," CodePink said. "We are so glad they were safe, along with the 16 humanitarians and crew on board the ship."
"CodePink recognizes this as Israel blatantly violating international law by attacking a civilian ship in international waters and putting the lives of all those on the ship in jeopardy," the group added. "They must be held accountable for this attempted murder and every crime they have committed against humanitarians and the people of Gaza. This act by Israel sends a message to the world: Anyone who tries to bring aid to the people of Gaza is a military target and will be treated as such."
CodePink pointed to a CNN report indicating that "an Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules was picked up leaving Israel early Thursday afternoon and flying to Malta."
Citing flight-tracking data, CNN reported that "the Hercules did not land at Malta’s international airport, the data shows, but the cargo aircraft did fly at a relatively low altitude—below 5,000 feet—over eastern Malta for an extended period of time."
"The Hercules flew over several hours before the Freedom Flotilla Coalition says their vessel came under attack," the outlet added. "The plane returned to Israel about seven hours later."
This story has been updated to include new comments from CodePink and reporting from CNN.
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Sanders Says Senate Hearing Will Put 'Greed on Display' With or Without Healthcare CEO
"Dr. de la Torre will be held accountable for his greed and the damage he has caused the American people and our nation's healthcare system."
Sep 06, 2024
Taking aim at Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre's refusal to comply with a Senate subpoena, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday said the committee he chairs will still hold a hearing next week on the company's bankruptcy and healthcare industry greed.
"Working with private equity vultures, Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and healthcare providers across the country," said Sanders, who heads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
"This outrageous display of corporate greed has resulted in more than 30 Steward hospitals in eight states being forced to declare bankruptcy, putting patients and communities at risk," added the senator, who said the hearing is set to take place next Thursday at 10:00 am Eastern time.
"Ralph de la Torre has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and health care providers across the country."
Steward is trying to auction off all 31 of its hospitals in order to pay down its debt. As Common Dreams reported, the HELP committee—which includes 10 Republicans—voted 20-1 in July to investigate Steward Health Care's bankruptcy, and 16-4 to subpoena de la Torre.
"Dr. de la Torre will be held accountable for his greed and the damage he has caused the American people and our nation's healthcare system," Sanders said Friday. "Is it my hope that Dr. de la Torre will do the right thing, change his mind, and join our hearing to provide testimony? Yes. But let me be clear: With or without him, this hearing is going forward."
"We will expose his fraud, and put his greed on display," the senator added. "I look forward to hearing from patients, medical professionals, and community members whose lives have been upended by Dr. de la Torre and his private equity cronies."
Another HELP committee member, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is a bankruptcy law expert, on Wednesday accused de la Torre of using Steward-owned hospitals "as his personal piggy bank."
De la Torre—who according to Steward's bankruptcy filing received more than $4 million in compensation between May 2023 and April 2024—has also come under fire for his 2021 purchase of a 190-foot megayacht believed to be worth around $40 million. That year, Steward's owners paid themselves millions of dollars in dividends.
On Thursday, CBS News reported that in 2017 Steward executives including de la Torre illegally conspired with Maltese officials in order to secure a hospital contract, according to a whistleblower.
While a spokesperson for the executive denied any wrongdoing, whistleblower Ram Tumuluri alleged in a complaint to the U.S. Congress that "in touting Steward's supposed competitive advantage in Malta... de la Torre boasted that he could issue 'brown bags' to government officials if necessary to close transactions."
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Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official told Axios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
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