Hawzah News Agency - Swedish activist Greta Thunberg told Reuters she was in Malta and had been supposed to board the ship as part of the Freedom Flotilla's planned action in support of Gaza, which is under blockade and bombardment by Israel.

"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters'', the NGO said.

The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international non-governmental group.

The Maltese government said maritime authorities had received a mayday call shortly after midnight local time from a vessel outside of territorial waters, with 12 crew members and four civilians on board, reporting a fire.

Thunberg said that as far as she knew, the vessel was still at the location where it had been attacked and still in imminent danger.

"This attack caused an explosion and major damage to the vessel, which made it impossible to continue the mission'', she said in a Zoom interview.

"I was part of the group who was supposed to board that boat today to continue the voyage towards Gaza, which is one of many attempts to open up a humanitarian corridor and to do our part to keep trying to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza'', she said.

Thunberg and the NGO said there were 30 people on board, not 16 as the Maltese government said.

Since March 2, Israel has completely cutt off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the enclave, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.

Another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, and nine activists died. Other ships have similarly been stopped and boarded.

Hamas issued a statement about the incident off Malta, accusing Israel of "piracy" and "state terrorism".

Source: Reuters