Gold Coast-based Yusuf Omar, the founder of an online media company and a former CNN journalist, described the survival of the six passengers and crew on the Portuguese-flagged ship on Tuesday as miraculous.
"I felt the heat of a massive ball of flames. I was sleeping on the top deck as it hit," he told AAP from Tunis hours after the explosion.
"I was shocked and terrified for my life."
The Global Sumud Flotilla said the main and storage decks were damaged by fire from the strike, which Tunisian authorities deny took place.
The flotilla is part of an international effort to deliver air to Gaza through civilian boats with several high-profile celebrities joining the initiative including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
Mr Omar documented the charred aftermath of the strike showing burnt life jackets and sooty walls broadcasting it to his tens of thousands of social media followers.
AAP has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs for a comment.
The mother of an Australian who was also on the Gaza-bound aid boat said she was proud of her daughter but fears for her safety.
Julie Webb-Pullman woke up to the news, she was extremely upset and worried for her daughter Bianca Webb-Pullman, a GP in Melbourne.
"The terror of being asleep on a boat at sea and having it explode around you, and a fire breakout, is a psychologically extremely traumatising event," she told AAP.
"I'm very worried for all the people on board, but especially my daughter."
She has received a few texts from her daughter and is relieved she is no longer on the boat but said she supported the decision to join the flotilla.
"I'm very proud of her being out there doing what the Australian government should be doing, which is preventing genocide and intervening in a gross humanitarian crisis," she said.
An investigation into the drone attack is under way, the flotilla said.
Tunisia's National Guard spokesman has said reports of a drone attack on the flotilla "have no basis in truth" and claimed an initial inspection indicated the explosion initiated inside the vessel.
But a video uploaded to the flotilla's social media appears to show the moment its boat was struck from above.
Israel has killed almost 64,000 people in Gaza including more than 20,000 children in its two-year long military assault, according to local health authorities
Its latest campaign began after militant group Hamas reportedly killed 1200 people and took another 250 hostages on October 7, 2023.
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