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Mass. brothers continue with flotilla aid mission to Gaza despite drone attacks
The two men are part of an international volunteer flotilla that faced three hours of attacks Tuesday night off the coast of Crete.
Two brothers from Massachusetts are continuing their journey to Gaza as part of a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid after it was attacked Tuesday off the coast of Crete.
Adnaan and Tor Stumo are both sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a coalition of international volunteers traveling across the Mediterranean Sea in small vessels to provide Gazans with food and aid as the war continues. The flotilla was targeted in a series of drone attacks Tuesday night that lasted for about three hours.
The attacks happened at around 10:30 p.m. UTC, according to the flotilla’s official tracker. Footage from the attacks posted to X and Instagram shows several boats being hit by flashbangs as passengers and crew take cover and shield themselves.
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“We are civilians on a peaceful humanitarian mission,” Tor Stumo said in an Instagram post made while the attacks were ongoing. “We call on all governments in the surrounding waters to act now to ensure our safety, especially through their coast guards. International protection is urgently needed.”
Ten of the boats in the fleet had to be assessed for damage, but no injuries or casualties were reported, according to status reports attached to the flotilla’s tracker. The flotilla previously faced two attacks on Sept. 8 and 9 when incendiary devices were dropped on three boats docked in Tunis.
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“Last night, multiple civilian boats were targeted by unmanned drones,” the flotilla said Wednesday in an Instagram post. “The attacks included the deployment of explosive and incendiary devices, deliberate dispersal of chemical substances onto civilian vessels, disabling of emergency communication devices and calculated physical damage designed to render the ships unseaworthy and endanger volunteers aboard.”
The Stumo brothers’ mother, former candidate for Congress Nadia Milleron of Sheffield, met Wednesday with staff of Sen. Elizabeth Warren seeking help from lawmakers to take action to better protect the flotilla. She has also been working with Rep. Richard Neal, her former 1st Congressional District opponent.
“It’s important to interrupt our taxpayer dollars that are paying for this war,” Milleron said.
Neal’s office recently sent a letter to the White House asking the Trump administration to help ensure that the necessary humanitarian aid reaches Gaza and protect the flotilla from attacks. Milleron told Boston.com that many of the approximately 500 volunteers from 45 countries suspect that Israeli forces are connected to the attacks, and though no one has been hurt so far, they suspect there is worse to come.
“For the past week, Israel has been manufacturing consent for a potentially lethal attack on our vessels — smearing our humanitarian initiative by falsely labeling it ‘Hamas,’ a tactic long used to justify escalating violence against civilians in Gaza, while also deploying psychological warfare and even unleashing incendiary devices against our boats,” the flotilla wrote Wednesday in a statement obtained by Boston.com. “Now, participants and Members of Parliament on board are receiving calls from their governments warning that Israel is preparing an escalated assault on our flotilla at a scale far deadlier than anything witnessed so far.”
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The flotilla has called on the Hellenic Coast Guard to intervene and protect them, but so far, those calls have gone unanswered. Milleron told Boston.com that when the flotilla’s captain called them, they claimed to have no knowledge of the attacks.
However, a dispatcher at the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., indicated in a call to Tor’s partner that the Coast Guard received a call about the attacks but had not been able to confirm whether or not they actually happened. In a video obtained by Boston.com, the dispatcher can be heard saying that the Coast Guard “did not receive any information from the flotilla.”
The flotilla has already faced 12 aerial attacks in the Greek Search and Rescue Region, according to an Instagram post. While no assistance from Greece has been offered yet, Spain and Italy have stepped in, both sending navy ships to help escort the flotilla.
Before their journey began, Milleron joined her sons in Barcelona for preliminary training as the flotilla was prepared. Though the brothers have their share of maritime experience, the flotilla has special protocols for dealing with obstacles, including not retaliating or defending themselves if Israel forces attack them, according to Milleron.
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Milleron called her sons Wednesday morning and confirmed that they were unharmed, but she told Boston.com she fears the threat of another potentially devastating attack. She has already lost a son to cancer and a daughter to an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash, and she’s afraid to lose her other two sons, too.
The flotilla has an estimated six days to go before it reaches Gaza, Milleron said. Though she knows her sons are in harm’s way, she said she’s going to continue supporting them in the aid mission.
“This is a massive atrocity that we are complicit in,” she said. “At some point people have to say no to Israel.”
This article was updated Sept. 25 at 5:30 p.m. to correct details about Milleron’s family.
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