They were pretending to be Syrians.
And, of course their deaths will be blamed on Israel. We wrote about this sinking incident here yesterday.
Sure looks like US taxpayers helped fund their voyage. The US is the top donor of UNRWA (the special UN agency just for Palestinians).
Many paragraphs in to this article from the EU Observer we learn this:
The Palestinian men told the IOM [International Organization for Migration] they paid a “travel office” in Gaza $2,000 each using money from grants to rebuild their homes.
Haaretz reports, citing an anonymous trafficker, that some pay up to $4,000. They enter Egypt through tunnels under the Rafah crossing point, where buses drive them through the Sinai desert to safe houses.
The sea voyage to Europe can take a week because they are forced to keep changing boats.
The smugglers bribe Egyptian officials. They also have agents in south Europe who help migrants get out of detention facilities. Some tell the Palestinians to claim they are Syrians escaping the civil war.
The survivors told IOM their boat was deliberately rammed by traffickers in waters south of Malta on 11 September when the migrants refused to board a smaller vessel.
“After they hit our boat they waited to make sure that it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing”, one survivor said.
The traffickers had their money, and like most Middle Eastern Muslims they must see the Palestinians as pawns in their more important war with Israel.
See our ‘invasion of Europe’ series here.