The Maltese government is investigating a potential breach of its neutrality after an Israeli plane was recorded in Maltese airspace before the attack on a civilian ship carrying Gaza activists off the coast of Malta on Friday morning.
The Maltese government convened the Maritime Security Committee to investigate the cause of the blasts. Malta has been militarily neutral since amending its constitution in 1987.
Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri told the Times of Malta that the committee would be looking into every possibility, after being asked whether Israel was involved.
The opposition Partit Nazzjonalista called for caution and urged the government to investigate and put national security first, specifically calling for clarification on whether this was a military attack and whether it occurred within Maltese territory.
The Maltese government later announced that "at no point in time, during the past 48 hours, any aircraft or vessel, currently mentioned in local and foreign media in relation to the case of the vessel Conscience, entered Maltese Sovereign Airspace or the territorial sea (12 nautical miles from shore). Therefore, the territorial integrity of Malta was never compromised at any stage."
An Israeli plane flying over Malta
Fingers were pointed at Israel after the Times of Malta and CNN published reports that an Israeli aircraft had been recorded in the vicinity of the Conscience off the north-east coast of Malta hours before the attack. However, both said no connection had been confirmed.
The C-130 Hercules plane was recorded flying into Maltese airspace after midday on Thursday by the flight tracking website ADS-B exchange.
The website recorded that the plane made several maneuvers over the course of about two hours over the northeast coast of Malta.
Following the maneuvers, the website loses track of the plane before reappearing around 6 p.m. off the coast of Israel, where it subsequently landed.
At approximately midnight, the Conscience was attacked by two drones, which, according to the crew, appeared to target the ship's generator.