On September 8 and 9, two vessels of the Gaza-bound International Sumud Flotilla (GSF) had been attacked exterior the port of Sidi Bou Stated in Tunisia.
Bellingcat analysed footage and pictures from each incidents. The consultants consulted consider improvised incendiary munitions had been seemingly used. The trajectory adopted by the objects and the audio recordings additionally seem to recommend they might have been dropped from an aerial platform above the vessels. Though this tallies with witness accounts that declare they noticed a drone, extra proof can be wanted to substantiate the system used for the assaults.
The primary assault occurred round midnight native time and focused the lead vessel, known as the Household Boat. The GSF’s official assertion stated the Household Boat was “struck by a drone in Tunisian waters”, inflicting a hearth on “the primary deck and beneath deck storage”. The six passengers and the crew managed to extinguish the fireplace. No accidents or important injury had been reported.
Tunisian official sources stated there was “no proof of any hostile act or exterior concentrating on”. A press release printed by the nation’s Nationwide Guard on Fb acknowledged that preliminary investigations indicated the fireplace broke out in one of many life jackets “on account of a lighter or cigarette butt”. On the time of publication, this stays the one official assertion about the reason for the fireplace. Bellingcat despatched an inquiry to Tunisian authorities, however had not acquired a response by the point of publication.
The GSF reported that one other boat, the Alma, was hit by a second assault on September 9, shortly after midnight native time, roughly 24 hours after the primary incident. They launched a video exhibiting incendiary munition falling in an analogous method to that which struck the Household Boat. The crew of the Alma managed to extinguish the fireplace. No accidents had been reported, and injury was minor.
The First Assault: What Open Supply Can Reveal
Following the primary assault, the GSF launched a number of movies, together with one recorded from one other vessel exhibiting an incendiary munition falling onto the Household Boat. The article ignites above the boat’s mast – the best level on the vessel – earlier than erupting into a bigger flaming mass and putting the deck. The visible proof seems to contradict the assertion printed by the nation’s Nationwide Guard.
The article will need to have been deployed from an aerial platform, as no increased constructions or elevated positions are seen within the analysed footage.
Eyewitness accounts assist the aerial origin. Portuguese citizen Miguel Duarte was on the Household Boat. He will be seen in a video from a digicam put in on the vessel, exhibiting a view of the aft-deck and searching upwards shortly earlier than an explosion happens off digicam. He stated in an announcement that he “noticed a drone clearly about 4m above” his head. He described the article to Bellingcat as a really noisy, sq. drone of round half a meter in width.
Duarte additionally stated that the projectile landed immediately on a pile of life jackets. The boat’s paint was broken, however no metal melted. Bellingcat was not in a position to establish any munition remnants from the accessible open sources documenting this strike.
Nevertheless, Bellingcat contacted two impartial consultants who seem to agree that an improvised incendiary object was used within the assault and deployed from an aerial platform.
Dr N.R. Jenzen-Jones from Armament Analysis Companies (ARES) acknowledged: “The movies seem to indicate an incendiary object falling onto the deck of the ship in query. Opposite to some public observations, there may be nothing to recommend this was an explosive munition.” He stated that whereas the accessible imagery is restricted, stopping an identification at the moment, the incendiary object “may conceivably be a army incendiary munition, a civilian object (reminiscent of a flare), or an improvised system.”
Dr. Jenzen-Jones additionally stated that “the sound in some movies suggests a flying object reminiscent of a UAV or gentle plane might have dropped the article from overhead, however there isn’t any conclusive proof of this, and the noise may very well be coincidental.”
Petro Pyatakov, a retired colonel who’s now a advisor for the arms trade, instructed Bellingcat that from the movies, “it seems like an improvised incendiary shell dropped from 100-130 metres. [There are] no seems like a rocket engine or an arty shell, [just a] low blast impact solely, [maybe] some incendiary materials with an igniter like a Molotov cocktail”.
Audio from the video footage additionally reveals the presence of a sound within the background that seems to be in line with that of a drone.
Bellingcat requested Faine Greenwood, proprietor of Tarentum Consulting LLC and an professional on unmanned aerial automobiles, to evaluate the video. After watching the footage, Faine acknowledged that “it’s very arduous to say conclusively that it is a drone, as we don’t really get an opportunity to see it. Nevertheless, I do suppose that the character of the recorded sound, the trajectory of the dropped explosive (as seen on this video), and the boat’s recognized proximity to the shoreline/port do make me suppose that it’s extremely believable that this was a drone assault of some type, seemingly carried out with a multirotor-type platform and never with a set wing.”
MarineTraffic, a worldwide ship monitoring database, exhibits that the Household Boat was moored inside roughly 1.62 kilometres of land on the time of the incident.
The Second Assault
On September 9, the GSF reported a second assault, this time concentrating on the Alma. Members of the crew acknowledged they noticed a drone hovering over the ship, which then dropped the incendiary munition just like the one which struck the Household Boat. The crew managed to place out the fireplace, and there have been no accidents and solely minor injury.
The GSF launched a video exhibiting the incendiary munition touchdown on the rear of the vessel, erupting right into a fireball that oversaturates the digicam, just like the strike on the Household Boat. As soon as the digicam is now not oversaturated, a hearth is seen burning on the deck earlier than being extinguished by these on board.
The incendiary munition that landed on the Alma seems to be the identical kind because the one seen within the first assault on the Household Boat. They each appear to comply with the identical trajectory, have a comparable flaring look as they fall, and each create fireballs on impression that oversaturate the cameras.
Not like the assault on the Household Boat, munition remnants had been recovered and shared by GSF after the Alma incident.
Mauricio Morales, a journalist travelling with the GSF, despatched Al Jazeera a photograph of the remnants recovered after the assault on the Alma. It seems to indicate a grenade hooked up to a webbing or bag.
The picture was taken on the rear, close to the place the incendiary munition impacted the vessel.
The grenade matches the looks of smoke or thermite grenades utilized by Western militaries, together with america, in addition to Israel.
Bellingcat confirmed the pictures and pictures to munitions professional Dr N.R. Jenzen-Jones, from Armament Analysis Companies, who stated: “They seem to indicate what would ordinarily be a hand-thrown munition amongst the stays of a melted artificial bag or pouch. This can be an incendiary grenade, or presumably a smoke grenade used to ignite an incendiary composition held within the bag. The protection pin and security lever of the grenade look like absent, in line with it being armed and able to functioning.”
Thermite grenades and smoke grenades are of comparable building, with the identical basic exterior look. Whereas the above reference picture of a US AN-M14 thermite grenade is painted crimson, the colors fluctuate between producers of thermite grenades.
Dr Jenzen-Jones additional acknowledged: “The fuze options an exterior clip for the safety-pin ring-pull, in addition to peripheral safety for the cut up pin. These options are frequent, however not unique, to some fashions of Israeli hand grenades. Higher photos will seemingly reveal vital diagnostic particulars, probably even remnants of markings on the physique of the munition.”
Whereas the precise kind of grenade – thermite or smoke – can’t be decided from the accessible imagery, the traits of the falling incendiary munitions seen putting the Household Boat and Alma clearly point out the usage of an incendiary composition.
Incendiary grenades are sometimes crammed with thermite or an analogous incendiary composition. Based on a current report from Forbes, thermite shouldn’t be almost as efficient as explosive munitions towards armoured targets or personnel. Whereas it is vitally efficient towards flammable targets.
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There are quite a few visible references for incendiary munitions. For instance, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has led to many movies of drones with hooked up thermite or different incendiary munitions burning as they fly over enemy positions. Related incendiary munitions have additionally been utilized in Gaza. All these burn in a fashion in line with the incendiary munitions used within the assaults on the Household Boat and Alma.
As of the publication of this text, there have been no additional official statements from Tunisian authorities since their preliminary assertion following the assault on the Household Boat, which stated there was “no proof of any hostile act or exterior concentrating on”.
Miguel Ramalho contributed to this report for Bellingcat.
Members of Bellingcat’s International Authentication Challenge, together with Tomi McCluskey, Shiva Shah, Megan O’Toole, and Afton Briones, contributed analysis to this piece.
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