The Gaza-based human rights organization Al-Damir (meaning "conscience” in Arabic) has since Sept. 17 been gathering reports and testimonies about the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian refugees off the island of Malta. The refugees left Gaza through a tunnel to Egypt, and boarded a migrant boat in the hopes of reaching Europe and making a new life for themselves. But smugglers deliberately rammed their boat and most of them drowned.

According to reports reaching the organization, some 500 migrants were on the boat when it sank, roughly 400 of them refugees from the Gaza Strip. Only a few survived the tragic accident, picked up by merchant ships sailing in the area, and recounted their ordeal.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, the director of Al-Damir, Khalil Abu Shamala, described the tragedy at sea and the growing phenomenon of young Gazans leaving the Gaza Strip every possible way because there’s no longer any hope for them of ever being able to lead normal lives there.

“The testimony we have gathered so far points to some 400 Palestinians who died at sea,” Abu Shamala said. “There were also Syrians and Egyptians on board, but most were Palestinians from Gaza, including entire families with children and babies.”