Looking back 2025 | Israeli drone attack exposed Malta’s defence weaknesses

For long now, there has been no political appetite to revisit Malta’s constitutional neutrality clause and whether this should be amended or scrapped.

We have had the occasional flare-up on the issue sparked mainly by international incidents and 2025 was no different in this respect. The continuation of war in Ukraine, suspected Russian attacks on undersea infrastructure in the Baltics and the growing voices within the EU to up defence spending as America withdraws to its side of the Atlantic Ocean provided the backdrop to the sporadic national debate in the past 12 months.

But there was one incident in May 2025, which brought home the stark truth that neutrality on its own is not the magical cloak that shields Malta from calamity.

A drone attack on the humanitarian vessel Conscience, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, exposed Malta’s vulnerability to potential threats by ill-meaning actors.

Malta was not the intended target of the attack, which happened in international waters just outside territorial reach. Nonetheless, a civilian ship carrying pro-Palestine activists that was waiting to take humanitarian workers on board from Malta was sabotaged at Hurd’s Bank. The area is a strategic bunkering zone regularly populated by scores of cargo vessels, including oil tankers, waiting at anchor for supplies, personnel or market conditions to improve.

The attack was allegedly perpetrated by the Israeli military using two precision munition drones after an Israeli air force KC-130 Hercules aircraft had earlier in the day carried out patrols on Hurd’s Bank, just outside Maltese jurisdiction. Israel never claimed responsibility for the attack but it follows similar incidents on other vessels of the flotilla elsewhere.

A marine surveyor’s report financed by the government of the stricken humanitarian vessel was never published in its entirety and no international forensic investigation of the Conscience was conducted.

An Israeli air force KC-130 Hercules aircraft had circled over Hurd’s Bank several hours before the drone attacks on the aid ship

The Maltese Government’s inability to give a proper, detailed account of the incident, which could have had serious repercussions had the drones accidentally targeted an oil tanker, spoke volumes. The attack underscored the importance of government taking Malta’s security and defence seriously, something that appeared lacking in light of Prime Minister Robert Abela’s belittling of the EU plan to strengthen defence and security across the bloc. The brazen attack on the aid ship exposed Malta’s vulnerability first-hand. Later in the year, drone sightings over several European airports that disrupted air travel and caused alarm, drove home the point that European countries need to step up aerial surveillance, detection and interception of drones. The Ukraine war has showcased the strategic importance of drones on the battlefield.

Back on the home front, though, the debate on defence never took off. There was no public reassurance that measures would be taken to beef up security of Malta’s skies and its strategic subsea infrastructure—data and electricity cables.

A strategic review of the Armed Forces of Malta’s defence capabilities to identify the gaps and determine how these could be filled was never announced. This is another matter from 2025 characterised by unfinished business, or rather business that has not even started.

Within an evolving EU security and defence scenario, Malta’s own security should be a priority in the months and years to come. And yet, the likeliness is that the debate will fizzle away from the national agenda only to resurface when some major incident occurs that could have domestic relevance.

But even then, the debate over the need for better and smarter investment in defence as part of an EU-wide strategy, will likely be smothered by the neutrality clause that still interprets the world along a rigid bipolar axis—the American and Soviet Union superpowers—that no longer exists. Indeed, the Soviet Union is no more, China is a superpower as much as the US and Russia, and since the neutrality clause was inserted in the Constitution, Malta joined the EU, which is increasingly developing into a defence and security union.

In 2025, it took one incident close to home to expose Malta’s defence weaknesses. Whether it has served the country a lesson, is a debate for another time.