“DRONE ABOVE MY HEAD”
Asked by AFP about the reported attack, Palestinian activist Saif Abukeshk implicitly blamed Israel.
“No party has an interest in preventing the flotilla from setting sail except the occupying state,” he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The vessel was in Tunisian waters when a fire broke out and was quickly extinguished, according to an AFP journalist who arrived shortly after the flames had been doused.
The flotilla organisers said that the boat suffered no substantial damage and that none of the six people on board at the time was hurt.
Among them was Portuguese activist Miguel Duarte, who told reporters in downtown Tunis on Tuesday that he saw a drone drop an explosive device.
“I was on the deck on the back part of the ship, and I heard a drone,” he said. “I came out of the cover of the deck to see a drone hovering about three or four metres above my head.”
“I called my fellow crew members,” Duarte added. “Then we saw the drone move to the (front) part of the deck. It stood for a few seconds on top of a bunch of life jackets and then dropped a bomb… there was a big flame.”
The flotilla organisers denounced the incident as “acts of aggression aiming to derail (its) mission”.
“We remain united and determined to leave tomorrow,” said Franco-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan in Tunis.
