The waters of Tunisia should have been a place of rest, preparation, and resolve for the Global Sumud Flotilla — a convoy of ordinary citizens turned extraordinary humanitarians, carrying not weapons but the most powerful message of all: that the siege of Gaza must end. Instead, on September 10, the Mediterranean once again erupted into fire. For the second time in two days, the flotilla reported a drone strike, this time targeting the Alma, a British-flagged vessel docked in Sidi Bou Said.
No one was killed. But that is not the measure of this crime. The strike tore into the deck of a civilian aid ship, in Tunisian waters, in what can only be described as an assault not only on the mission but on the very idea that civilians have the right to act when governments are too timid, too complicit, or too silent.
A Violation Beyond Borders
If verified, this was not only an attack on activists but an open violation of Tunisian sovereignty. It was an extension of the blockade of Gaza — a message that Israel’s red lines are without limit, stretching even to foreign ports. And yet, Tunisian officials have danced around the truth, suggesting fires may have been caused by accidents, as if life jackets and cigarettes could mimic the precision of a drone’s strike. The world is asked, once again, to doubt what its own eyes have seen: flames captured on video, activists running in fear, and the charred remains of a deck where aid was once being prepared.
The Courage of Persistence
Onboard were voices that cannot be silenced: Greta Thunberg, environmental icon turned humanitarian witness; international parliamentarians; faith leaders; ordinary people carrying extraordinary conviction. Their message is simple: Gaza’s siege is a crime against humanity, and it must end. That such people are targeted, that such missions are sabotaged, tells us how fragile Israel’s moral position has become. If the blockade were defensible, it would not need bombs to shield it from unarmed boats.
Starvation by Design
The flotilla sails not for glory but because Gaza has been driven into catastrophe. The UN now speaks openly of famine — man-made, deliberate, and total. Children are dying not because food does not exist in the world, but because it is being denied them. Israel has dropped over 100,000 tons of explosives on Gaza — an area smaller than New York City — and then strangled the survivors by blocking food, water, medicine, and fuel. Famine is not collateral damage; it is policy. And the flotilla’s mission is to break through that policy with humanity.
The Silence of the World
What should shake the world to its core instead passes in silence. Western capitals speak only of “Israel’s right to defend itself,” as if defense now includes drone strikes in Tunisian harbors against ships carrying flour and baby formula. International law is shredded in real time, and the global order averts its eyes, terrified of naming the aggressor.
What History Will Remember
The Global Sumud Flotilla is not the first civilian convoy to face fire on its way to Gaza. It will not be the last. But history will remember these attacks differently than Israel intends. Each drone, each bomb, each veto at the UN strips away the last veil of legitimacy and exposes the reality: a state so obsessed with domination that it fears even a handful of unarmed activists in wooden boats.
If famine is the weapon, if drones are the response to food, then Israel’s war is no longer only against Hamas or Gaza — it is a war against conscience itself.
And history, cruel as it can be, has always had the same verdict for those who wage war on humanity: they may win battles, but they never escape judgment.
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