What started as a peaceful demonstration of support for the 1.7 million people of Gaza, turned bloody Monday as Israeli forces boarded six ships attempting to run the three-year-old blockade Israel has maintained of the Gaza Strip.
Reports of as many as 19 of the human rights activists being killed in the assault are giving Israel an international black eye, and threaten to dramatically change the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The exact number of people killed in the strike, however, remained unconfirmed, with some media outlets putting the figure closer to nine.
A Victoria, B.C., man, Kevin Neish, was aboard one of the six ships. Friends said they hadn't heard from Mr. Neish since Thursday.
A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three helicopters with 15 soldiers aboard, and several commando boats approached the ships at about 4 a.m.
An Israeli commando said he descended with ropes and was immediately attacked by a group of people waiting for them. "They beat us up with metal sticks and knives," he said, adding, "There was live fire at some point against us."
He said a group of people pounced on the soldiers and beat them. One soldier had his guns snatched. "They were shooting at us from below deck."
He said some of the soldiers were tossed from the top deck to the lower deck by the activists and then jumped in the water to save themselves. Activists grabbed soldiers and tried to hold them hostage, stripping them of their helmets and equipment. He said about 30 activists, all speaking Arabic, had carried out the attack.
A high-ranking naval official displayed a box confiscated from the boat containing switchblades, slingshots, metal balls and metal bats. “We prepared (the soldiers) to deal with peace activists, not to fight,” he said. Most of the 10 dead were Turkish, he added.
“This is a historic day … a day of freedom … a turning point in the battle to end the siege of Gaza,” said Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on Gaza television. He sent his sympathies to the families of the dead and assured them the people would be viewed as “martyrs” in the campaign to liberate the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, speaking from Ramallah, declared three days of mouring for the deaths of the international activists. He described the incident as the product of years of “built up aggression.”
Israeli's Prime Minister, meanwhile, says the soldiers were only defending themselves.
Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli soldiers were mobbed, clubbed, beaten and stabbed as they boarded one of six ships.
Netanyahu, who is cutting short his scheduled visits to Ottawa and Washington to deal with the crisis, said the soldiers had no choice but to defend their lives.
He said the boarding came as the Israeli navy was checking for any rockets, missiles or explosives that might have been aboard.
This video image released by the Turkish Aid group IHH is said to show Israeli soldiers aiming a gun on the deck of a Turkish ship, part of an aid convoy heading to the Gaza Strip, after Israeli soldiers boarded the vessel in international waters off the Gaza coast.
In the seaport of Gaza, that had been prepared to receive the international flotilla had it succeeded in running the blockade, banners in Arabic, English and Turkish proclaimed the convoy participants were “heroes.”
“The people are in shock and greatly angered,” reported Hassan Jaber, a Gaza journalist. “They have begun to gather at many sites around Gaza waving Turkish flags and protesting what has happened.”
Around 10,000 Turks marched in protest from the Israeli consulate in Istanbul to a main square, chanting, “Murderous Israel you will drown in the blood you shed!” The protesters earlier tried to storm the Consulate building but were blocked by police. Around 1,000 protested in Jordan's capital, Amman, calling for their government to cut diplomatic ties with Israel. Smaller protests erupted in capitals across the Middle East as well as in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, the Greek city of Thessaloniki and the Pakistani city of Karachi.
Israeli media report that the Arab-Israeli community of Um al Fahm was tense following reports that its former mayor, Raed Salah, was among those injured during the boarding of the ships.
Mr. Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement in Israel, had boarded one of the boats departing from Turkey.
Police in large numbers had been deployed to Um al Fahm, often a flashpoint in Arab protests inside Israel.
Many of the hundreds of activists were from Turkey were encouraged to participate by an Islamic human rights organization. The government of Turkey denounced the Israeli assault in international waters as “unacceptable” and warned there would be “consequences.” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cutting short an official visit to Latin America to return to Turkey, and Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and demanded a meeting of the UN Security Counci.
The Security Council will meet on Monday afternoon for an emergency session to discuss the situaion, Security Council diplomats told Reuters.
They said no time had yet been set for the meeting and gave no further details.
In Ottawa, the Prime Minister's Office said it is examining the situation.
"Canada deeply regrets the loss of life and the injuries suffered," Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister's spokesman, said. "We are currently looking for more information in order to shed light on what exactly happened."
Until Israel’s assault on Hamas in Gaza in December-January 2008-09, relations between Turkey and Israel had been warm. The unexpected attack on Gaza triggered a diplomatic backlash and Monday’s assault on Turkish citizens will almost certainly worsen a key regional relationship.
Israel's National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau has issued a warning to Israelis travelling to Turkey.
Because of violent anti-Israel demonstrations, it advised people planning to leave to travel refrain from departure until the situation has cleared, and it warned all Israelis already in Turkey to remain in their residences and monitor events.
“The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained, and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy,” said White House spokesman William Burton.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper Monday morning, was preparing to head to the airport to return to Israel immediately afterward. He will cut short the remainder of his trip in Canada, including cancelling a meeting with Quebec Premier Jean Charest in Montreal, and has called off his trip to the United States.
Reuters reports that Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, has demanded a full inquiry about the circumstances in which the deaths occured, and called for “an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza.”
Greece suspended a military exercise with Israel and postponed a visit by Israel's air force chief. Greece, Egypt, Sweden, France, Spain and Denmark summoned Israel's ambassadors demanding explanations for the violence.
A small Israeli navy boat escorts a yacht from the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, with Israeli troops on board, as it enters the southern port of Ashdod.
The boarding of the vessels, all flying European flag, in international waters is being denounced as an act of “piracy.”
“People condemn Somalia for its attacks on ships in the Indian Ocean,” said Ahmed Yousef, the Hamas government’s deputy foreign minister. “What the difference? Israel is boarding peace ships in a clear violation of the Law of the Sea.
Reports from on board the ships indicate that the boats were contacted by the Israeli navy and asked who they were and where they were going.
“Our reply was that we were part of a flotilla and we were going to Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies,” a spokesman for the flotilla said.
“On the radar, the boats could see three Israeli war ships shadowing us, and 15 minutes later, a silent aircraft hovered over the flotilla.
“One of our Hebrew speakers had found Israel’s strategy and posted it to us. It stated: ‘You will be boarded by highly trained, very efficient and very SILENT commandos. They will use silent inflatable boats to get to our boats and both try to board our boats directly from the inflatables and by dropping divers into the water to climb onto the boats,’ so people were preparing for them to come up and over the sides of the ships.”
Israeli television showed video taken from one of the ships prior to being boarded and it showed a wooden baton that looked like an axe handle being handed to one of the party.
There were no details on the identities of the casualties, or on the conditions of some of the more prominent people on board, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85.
A wounded pro-Palestinian activist is evacuated to hospital in Jerusalem after Israeli forces stormed a flotilla sailing for the Gaza Strip.
“Our initial findings show that at least 10 convoy participants were killed,” a spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces said.
“During the intercept of the ships, the demonstrators on board attacked the IDF Naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs. Additionally one of the weapons used was grabbed from an IDF soldier. The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose. “
“As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire,” the statement said.
Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said an unspecified number of troops were helicoptered to hospital suffering from gunshots, knife wounds and blows.
“To me it is clear without a doubt, judging by what I saw and what I heard in the first reports from the soldiers, that in light of the danger to human life this violence required the use of weapons, and in my opinion the soldiers acted as they should have in this situation,” Mr. Ashkenazi said.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak expressed regret for the loss of life, but called IHH, a Turkish group organizing the sea convoy, a violent organization “operating under cover of humanitarian activity.”
The ships were being towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and wounded were evacuated by helicopter to Israeli hospitals, officials said. Two ships had reached port by midday.
Israel was justified in enforcing the blockade of Gaza, that “unfortunately” ended in violence, said Danny Ayalon, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister.
He described the humanitarian convoy as working “in aid of the terrorist organization, Hamas.”
“According to maritime law we have the right to do this,” Mr. Ayalon said. If the corridor was allowed to be opened, it would lead to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza and “the deaths of thousands of people.”
“No sovereign country would allow this to happen,” he told reporters in Jerusalem.
Speaking in Hebrew to Israeli reporters, Mr. Ayalon said: “We know that the organizers have strong long-standing connections with international terrorist elements, international Islam, Hamas, al-Qaeda and others; and we also know that their whole intention was to provoke…. We in Israel, naturally, regret all loss of life [but] the responsibility for the loss of life rests with those who simply ambushed the IDF soldiers and attacked them.”
With files from Associated Press and Reuters and The Canadian Press
