Tunisia denounces Gaza flotilla strike as 'premeditated aggression'
Tunisia denounces Gaza flotilla strike as 'premeditated aggression'
A strike on Tuesday targeting a boat from the pro-Palestinian Sumud flotilla to Gaza that was moored near Tunis was "a premeditated aggression", the Tunisian interior ministry said.
Tunisian authorities had earlier denied that a similar incident the day before was an attack.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is an international civilian movement seeking to peacefully transport humanitarian aid to Gaza, to break the Israeli siege on the war-torn enclave through international waters.
It is currently located off the coast of Sidi Bou Said near the Tunisian capital, awaiting departure.
Earlier this week, the flotilla organisers reported that two of the boats were targeted by "drone attacks" - the Portuguese-flagged Family Boat on Monday evening and the British-flagged L’Alma on Tuesday evening. No injuries were reported.
In a statement on Wednesday, the interior ministry stated that "the attack that occurred [on Tuesday] on one of the boats moored at the port of Sidi Bou Said was a premeditated act".
The ministry said all the necessary investigations were conducted to "reveal the whole truth, so that public opinion, in Tunisia and around the world, knows who planned this attack, who collaborated in it, and who carried out its acts".
'Hijack and sabotage' attempt
The Tunisian authorities, however, had denied that the first incident was an attack.
Based on surveillance videos and eyewitness accounts, flotilla organisers had denounced on Monday "an orchestrated [Israeli] attempt to hijack and sabotage our mission".
Investigative organisation Belllingcat said analysis of footage from the incidents and their aftermath suggest incendiary munitions were dropped on the vessels from the air.
Miguel Duarte, who was on board the Family boat and witnessed the attack, told Middle East Eye that he saw a drone hovering over the vessel before it dropped an explosive device.
"I saw a drone clearly about four metres above my head. I called someone. We were looking at the drone, just above our heads," he recounted.
The Tunisian National Guard immediately denied any "hostile act or external attack".
It said they detected "no drone overflights in the area" and mentioned a lighter or a cigarette butt that "set life jackets on fire", urging the public to follow only "official information" and not "rumours".
In the evening, the interior ministry backed this version, saying that allegations of a drone attack on the flotilla were "totally unfounded".
Following these statements, the Tunisian opposition party Ennahda called for the “truth" about the incident.
Ennahda - which, like many Tunisian political actors, activists and journalists, has been the target of the repression orchestrated by President Kais Saied since his coup d’etat four years ago - urged complete transparency towards the public regarding the affair, in order “to protect Tunisia's national security and sovereignty”.
The United Nations' special rapporteur on occupied Palestine, Francesca Albanese, who is participating in the flotilla, said while details of the attack have to be verified, Israel has a long history of attacking Gaza-bound ships.
“If it’s confirmed that this is a drone attack, it will be an assault and aggression against Tunisia and against Tunisian sovereignty,” she said.
Israeli attacks on Tunisian soil
Since his 2019 election, Saied has presented himself as an enemy of "foreign interference", for which he blames some of the country's ills. He has also declared himself a champion of the Palestinian cause, regularly denouncing the "Zionist genocide" in Gaza.
In July, Saied greeted Massad Boulos, the US senior adviser for Arab, Middle Eastern and African affairs, at Carthage Palace in Tunis with photos of starving Palestinian children in Gaza, saying it was "time for all of humanity to wake up".
Tunisians are largely very sensitive to the Palestinian cause, not least because their own country has been targeted by several Israeli attacks.
On 1 October 1985, an air raid devastated the headquarters of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Hammam Chott, a southern suburb of Tunis, where the Palestinian leadership led by Yasser Arafat had taken exile after its forced evacuation from Beirut in 1982.
The bombings killed 50 Palestinians and 18 Tunisians, according to local authorities.
On 16 April 1988, Khalil al-Wazir, better known as Abu Jihad, then the PLO's second-in-command, was assassinated in his residence in Sidi Bou Said.
And on 17 December 2016, Mohamed Zouari, a Tunisian engineer who was in charge of Hamas’ drone manufacturing programme, was riddled with approximately 20 bullets at his home in the port city of Sfax.
Another “Sumud" North African convoy, which also departed from Tunisia to break the Israeli siege of Gaza in June, this time by land, had to turn back after being blocked by eastern Libyan authorities, who arrested 13 participants and reportedly mistreated the activists.
Some Libyan news websites suggested that the convoy was stopped at the entrance to Sirte following pressure from Egypt, after Israel urged Cairo to ban any "act of provocation” by pro-Palestinian activists on their territory and any “attempted entry into Gaza”.
