On the night of September 8, 2025, a humanitarian mission to Gaza took a dramatic and controversial turn when the Global Sumud Flotilla’s "Family Boat" was reportedly struck by a drone while docked at the Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia. The incident, which ignited a fire onboard but left all six passengers and crew unharmed, has since become the center of an international dispute, with activists, intelligence experts, and Tunisian authorities offering sharply conflicting accounts of what actually happened.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), an activist group determined to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza by delivering food, water, and medicine by sea, released footage showing a bright flash descending onto the Portuguese-flagged vessel, followed by a burst of flames. According to Portuguese activist Miguel Duarte, who was onboard at the time, the attack was both sudden and terrifying. Duarte recounted at a press conference, “I came out of the cover of the deck to see a drone hovering about three or four meters above my head, called my fellow crew members, two of us stood there with the drone above our head, then we saw the drone move to the forward part of the deck. It stood a few seconds on top of a bunch of life jackets, and then dropped a bomb. The bomb exploded, there was a big flame, a fire on board immediately. We picked up fire extinguishers, fought the fire successfully, and everyone was safe, fortunately.”
The boat, which has carried some of the flotilla’s most high-profile members—including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau—was docked in Tunisian waters at the time of the incident. It remains unclear whether Thunberg or Colau were on board during the attack, though both are prominent faces of the mission. Irish actor Liam Cunningham is also among the notable supporters of the flotilla’s cause.
Despite the harrowing account from Duarte and the dramatic footage shared on social media, Tunisian authorities have consistently denied that any drone attack occurred. The Tunisian Interior Ministry released a statement declaring that “claims about a drone falling on one of the ships docked at the Port of Sidi Bou Said are unfounded.” According to their initial investigation, the fire was caused by a lighter or cigarette butt igniting a life jacket, and there was “no evidence of any hostile act or external targeting.” Tunisia’s National Guard echoed this assessment, stating that an inspection found the flames originated inside the vessel and not from any external device.
However, the GSF disputed this version of events, suggesting that the Tunisian authorities’ statements were released before they had reviewed the group’s video evidence. After viewing the footage—which clearly shows an object falling from above and igniting the fire—the Tunisian authorities reportedly formed a special committee to investigate further. A GSF spokesperson told CBS News, “We appreciate the effort that they are making to investigate, and we are waiting pending the final outcome.”
Independent analysis has added fuel to the controversy. BBC Verify authenticated several videos of the incident, and David Heathcote, Head of Intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services, told the BBC that “the nature of the impact angle in footage implies that the object has been dropped, rather than launched or fired. If so, it could be that a drone was used to manoeuvre over the ship before the package was released on to it.” Heathcote added, “Regardless of the method of delivery, the impact video casts serious doubt on the Tunisian authorities’ version of events.”
United Nations Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who is based in Tunisia and was at the port on the night of the incident, called the event a potential “assault and aggression against Tunisia, and Tunisian sovereignty” if the drone attack is verified. Albanese, a vocal critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, has herself been a subject of international controversy, having been sanctioned by the US in July—a move welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The "Family Boat" is just one of approximately 50 vessels in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail from Barcelona the previous week. The mission’s goal is to spotlight and challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has been in place for years and was tightened to a near-total blockade in March 2025. Israel maintains that the blockade is necessary to prevent weapons and materials from reaching Hamas, which it and the US have designated as a terrorist organization. Activists, however, argue that the blockade has created a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the United Nations recently confirming famine conditions in the territory—a claim Israel has called an “outright lie.”
This is not the first time activist flotillas have faced violence or interception. In June 2025, Israeli forces boarded a Gaza-bound boat carrying Thunberg and other activists, detaining them before deporting them to Europe. In May, another aid ship claimed to have been struck by a drone off the coast of Malta, though the Israeli military declined to comment on that incident. The most infamous precedent remains the 2010 raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which resulted in the deaths of ten activists at the hands of Israeli commandos.
Israel has dismissed such flotillas as “publicity stunts” that do little to alleviate suffering in Gaza. In one instance, Israeli authorities labeled a previous activist vessel intercepted in June as a “selfie yacht” carrying “less than a single truckload of aid.” The Israeli government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the recent incident in Tunisia.
Despite the setback—and the lingering uncertainty over who was responsible for the fire—the Global Sumud Flotilla remains undeterred. Activist Thiago Ávila declared at a press conference, “Not only we continue our mission, we keep on going, but since that [attack] happened, thousands and thousands of people are now volunteering again to join our mission.” The group has vowed to proceed with its plan to deliver aid to Gaza, with the next leg of their journey scheduled to depart Tunisia on September 10, 2025.
The debate over what truly happened in Sidi Bou Said port is unlikely to subside soon, as investigations continue and the international spotlight remains fixed on both the flotilla’s mission and the broader humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For now, the Global Sumud Flotilla’s resolve appears only strengthened by adversity, as activists and authorities alike brace for what comes next in this ongoing saga.