At Least 10 Dead as Israel Attacks Gaza Aid Flotilla
May 31st, 2010Via: Los Angeles Times:
Israeli naval ships seized control of a protest flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring several dozen, the Israeli military said.
“Israel expresses sorrow for those killed in the takeover,” the Israeli Cabinet said in a statement, according to one Hebrew-language website.
Israeli television, citing foreign media reports, said the death toll could be as high as 16.
“The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities,” Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel’s Army Radio.
The Israeli military said its soldiers were attacked with knives, clubs and other objects when they boarded one of the vessels. A military spokesman said protesters grabbed a commando’s weapon and soldiers came under fire. But protest organizers insisted they were unarmed.
Protest organizers described a chaotic early-morning takeover in international waters.
A flotilla spokeswoman, Greta Berlin, told Israel Radio that the confrontation was broadcast live from a Turkish boat participating in the flotilla. The footage, she said, clearly showed Israeli soldiers landing on the deck and opening fire on civilians.
“The minute their feet hit the deck, they started to shoot,” Berlin said.
She added, “Something happened to your country to make it think it is all right” to shoot civilians.
Israel Defense Force sources told Ynet, a popular Hebrew-language website, that the “organizers were not innocent — they demonstrated violence against the soldiers. They were prepared for their arrival.”
Israeli radio military analyst Yoav Limor blamed the military for underestimating the resistance it would encounter. “There was serious violence” that forced the soldiers to open fire, he said.
Video images released by the protesters appeared to show passengers beating commandos with clubs as the soldiers rappelled onto the vessel’s deck. A live video feed, which showed bloodstains and injured people, was abruptly cut.
The Turkish government issued a statement that “strongly protested” Israel’s military action, according to Associated Press. The interception on the convoy is “unacceptable…. Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behavior,” the statement read.
Turkish media reported angry protesters shouting “Damn Israel!” outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul.
Israel put its security forces on alert in case of demonstrations by the nation’s Arab minority.
Flotilla organizers say they were carrying first-aid supplies and medical professionals in the event of casualties, but Adam Shapiro, the husband of one flotilla leader, said that “we thought that the possibility that Israeli soldiers would shoot” was remote.
Flotilla organizers said they carried no weapons.
The six-vessel flotilla, packed with hundreds of international activists, food and other humanitarian supplies, had left Cyprus on Sunday night in an attempt to break Israel’s longstanding blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“the minute their feet hit the ground they started to shoot”
Wow.
Why is it everytime Israel unleashes aggression of this type they always lie throught their teeth about it knowing full well that there are in all cases witnesses that tell the rest of the world the truth. The lying for me, is like demonstrating pure, unadulterated contempt for humanity and peace.
the interesting aspect of this to me is as follows: A non-NATO member country, Israel, admits to capturing, detaining, and interning the flagged vessels, cargo, and passengers of active NATO member nations in international waters. They are NOT operating under a UN resolution or SOFA in the area which might allow such actions.
Therefore, this is an act of piracy.
Are we not, as NATO members, obligated to a response against the rogue nation under treaty as signed ?
hmmm.
Cybele
and the reaction by the US, UN and UK (and NZ) to this armed piracy and murder on the high seas by a UN member state?
“meh”
nothing to see here. move along.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts06012010.html
I agree with Dagobaz, I think the laws of the sea in International waters is that you do NOT BOARD another vessel unless invited. What does Israel imagine itself to be? The crew from the movie “Pirates of the Carribean (sp)?
As an American, I’ve just about had it with Israel, and don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-Semitic in the least. My father worked for a Jewish family cutting meat; he slept with the window he slept in open a crack no matter how cold, because a family he knew (who was Jewish) died from carbon dioxide poisoning from an unvented heater.
When Dad drank beer (all he ever drank) and got tipsy, he would say “Oi,Yoi,Yoi, Shicker as a Goy.” ( I think that translates to “I am as drunk as a little boy.”)
So in other words I am saying my father, born in 1910, had a very different experience of the Jewish culture.
Israel today is not full of the Jewish spirit my father knew and taught me to cherish. In fact, I was only “allowed to be friends” with Jewish when I was growing up. Even in adulthood, my father approved mightily of a friendship I developed with a Jewish friend.
Anyways, I write too much. Sorry.
But the Israeli’s have become a cult of paranoia anymore. I don’t think they represent anything similar to what I know.
I wish they’d get over their possesiveness and hatred of all things Palestinian (the land they implanted themselves on).
I for one, think that the Israeli’s should be giving thanks to the Palastinian’s for having giving them a place to park their weary asses after demolition of their Homeland’s under Hitler. But I guess that gift wasn’t enough.
Too bad people are so flucking greedy and aggressive.