By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Video released late Monday night showed Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid flotilla being “struck from above” in a “drone attack” in Tunisian waters.
Miguel, an activist with the flotilla, could be seen looking up at the sky before the attack occurred and jumping for cover as the incendiaries dropped:
He told the media he “100 percent” saw a “drone dropping a bomb” on “the forward deck of our ship.”
Before the bombshell video was released, endless media outlets were running with Tunisian officials’ claims that there was no drone and a fire just spontaneously erupted on the boat.
From BBC News, “Tunisia denies claims Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was hit by drone”:
Tunisian authorities have denied claims that one of the Gaza-bound vessels carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists including Greta Thunberg was attacked by a drone.
The organisers of the flotilla, Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), said that the Portuguese-flagged vessel had been struck by a drone while anchored outside the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. All six passengers and crew were safe, they added.
A spokesperson for Tunisia’s national guard told the Agence France-Presse news agency that “no drone” had been detected and the investigation was ongoing.
The humanitarian aid flotilla set sail from Barcelona last week, and arrived in Tunisia on Sunday.
The GSF said their “Family boat” was struck in Tunisian waters, and fire had damaged the main deck.
In a series of videos published to their Instagram, spokespeople for the GSF said an “incendiary device” caused a fire onboard the vessel, which the crew was able to extinguish.
Tunisia’s National Guard spokesman told Mosaique FM radio that reports of a drone attack on the flotilla “have no basis in truth”, Reuters reported.
He added that an initial inspection indicated the explosion originated inside the vessel.
Fortunately, one of their many cameras managed to capture the damning footage to back-up their story.
Why did Tunisian authorities seemingly lie to the public about this incident?
This excerpt from a report in the New Arab from Nov 2023 may give us a clue:
On 2 November, the Tunisian Assembly of People was stunned into silence and confusion when a letter from President Kais Saied interrupted a voting session on the anti-normalisation law with Israel to instruct members to dismiss the bill.
“The President told me to inform you to postpone the session because the proposed law endangers Tunisia’s external security and interests,” the head of the People’s Assembly Ibrahim Boudarbala told the session, telling the representatives they could do with the president’s opinion “whatever they want”.
[…] Mohamed Ali, an MP and the rapporteur for the Rights and Freedoms Committee (responsible for examining the bill before it went to the plenary session) has claimed that Washington had threatened “economic and military sanctions” if the bill were passed.
I suspect they want to avoid entering a conflict with Israel (and by extension the US) and were just trying to cover it up to keep from getting involved.
The way so many Arab countries that talk tough about Israel just wash their hands of the Gaza genocide is a disgrace.
We saw last week how just a bit of pressure from the UAE got Israel to back off talk of annexing the West Bank.
The Arab world could end the genocide tomorrow if they just presented a united front.