Israel today: Drone attack on Flotilla, Gaza city evacuation, blast ‘50 towers of terror’... treaty with India

The international activist group Global Sumud Flotilla, aiming to send aid to Gaza by sea, has stated that one of its vessels was struck by what it believes was a drone while docked in Tunisia — though Tunisian authorities have disputed the claim and are investigating the incident where a life jacket seems to have caught fire on the boat.

Footage posted on the Global Sumud Flotilla’s social media accounts, however, shows a flash of light striking one of the vessels, apparently causing the fire.

The Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement overnight (8–9 September) that a vessel known as the ‘Family Boat’, flying the Portuguese flag, was hit by a drone, though no injuries were reported.

The group, whose flotilla was scheduled to depart Tunisia on 10 September, Wednesday, and head on towards Palestine, is expected to hold a news briefing in Tunis later on Tuesday to discuss the incident.

It has, however, already emphasised that the episode shall not prevent its mission to deliver aid to Gaza — an effort the Israeli authorities describe as a provocation.

The flotilla forms part of wider efforts to bring humanitarian relief to Gaza via maritime routes. A previous ship to sail to Gaza on a similar mission, the Madleen, was boarded and taken in by the IDF from international waters and its crew deported. That crew had some overlap with this one — including activist Greta Thunberg. The Handala, the last aid ship to Gaza, suffered a similar fate.

Meanwhile, the Tunisian interior ministry issued a statement calling reports of a drone attack “unfounded” and said security teams were investigating the cause of the fire in a life jacket on board.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or government regarding the incident.

However, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese was among those who amplified the Global Sumud Flotilla’s story and video, suggesting viewers draw their own conclusions.

Notably, the ‘Family Boat’ carries members of the organisation’s steering committee — which includes Thunberg, fellow environmentalist Thiago Avila (who was also on the Madleen), and several other activists, historians and more

Among the well-known activists on this trip are actor Susan Sarandon, who has been outspoken on behalf of Palestine, and

The Flotilla has representation from 44 nations, across Africa and Europe, as well as Brazil and Australia, the United States and Mexico. There is no Indian participant, but Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan do feature.

Meanwhile, in the wake of a shooting at a Jerusalem bus stop that killed six people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a note of condemnation — even as his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ‘full evacuation’ of Gaza.

The Israeli ambassador in India was quick to latch on to the Operation Sindoor-esque vocabulary and align itself with India as a victim of terrorism — a renewed bid for international sympathy at a time when the tide, both in Israel itself and across the globe, is turning towards empathy for Palestine.250-o

After all, Israel has now killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians (over a third seem to be children) in the last not-quite-2-years — versus the 250-odd hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and the 1,200 killed that day plus these six in Jerusalem yesterday, 8 September.

In response to specifically the bus-stop shooting, the IDF carried out raids into East Jerusalem and killed two 14-year-old Palestinian children in raids on the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp, and wounded several more, per an Al Jazeera report.

Meanwhile, the IDF has begun a systematic decimation of high-rises in Gaza City — which was ‘warned’ to be fully evacuated — as Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take down “50 towers of terror”.

This is the first time an entire Gazan city — and that includes what used to be Khan Younis and Rafah — has been told to evacuate entirely, and not just sections to be evacuated that military operations are targetting.

Gaza City is Palestine’s last remaining operational city, and home to about 1 million people with nowhere left to go. There are no more cities, the camps are full... and famine is spreading.

Meanwhile, Israel and India strengthen ties...

Back in India, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi today flayed the Narendra Modi government for signing a bilateral investment treaty with Israel at this time “when Israel is overseeing genocide, ethnic cleansing and famine [in] Gaza”.

Pointing out that Bezalel Smotrich — the Israeli finance minister who signed together with his counterpart here, Nirmala Sitharaman — has the world petitioning the ICC for arrest warrants against him and believes it is ‘just and moral’ to starve Gazans, Owaisi called the government’s choice “despicable”.

“Supporting a genocidal government cannot be in national interest,” he posted on X, citing the news that has been made much of in the national media.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was another to voice his protest, strongly condemning the Modi government for hosting Smotrich — whom the CM described as “a far-right extremist and a chief architect of Israel’s brutal occupation and expansionist agenda”.

“At a time when a genocide is unfolding in Gaza, entering into agreements with representatives of the Netanyahu regime is nothing short of a betrayal of India’s historic solidarity with Palestine,” Vijayan posted on X n the evening of 9 September, a day after the signing of the treaty.

Notably, India was the first non-Arab nation to recognise the Yasser Arafat-led PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) as ‘sole and legitimate representative’ of Palestinians in 9174 and one of the first countries to later recognise the state of Palestine in 1988 upon its formal declaration of independence.

“It is deplorable to maintain military, security, and economic ties with Israel while the path to a just and lasting peace for Palestine remains unpursued.