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Headline News Massacre on high seas Published Date: June 01, 2010 JERUSALEM: Israeli marines stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza yesterday and at least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed, triggering a diplomatic crisis and an emergency session of the UN Security Council. European nations, as well as the United Nations and Turkey, voiced shock and outrage at the bloody end to the international campaigners' bid to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Boarding from dinghies and rappelling from helicopters, naval commandos stopped six ships, 700 people and 10,000 tonnes of supplies from reaching the Islamist-run Palestinian enclave - but bloody miscalculation left Israel isolated and condemned. Once-close Muslim ally Turkey accused it of "terrorism" in international waters. The UN Security Council met in emergency session. The European Union, a key aid donor to Palestinians, demanded an independent inquiry and an end to the Gaza embargo. Israel's most powerful friend, the United States, was more cautious. But President Barack Obama said he wanted the full facts soon and regretted the loss of life. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret as he cut short a visit to Canada and rang Obama to call off a White House meeting that had been planned for today. He said his forces had been attacked: "They were mobbed, they were clubbed, they were beaten, stabbed, there was even a report of gunfire. And our soldiers had to defend themselves." F or all his regret, he vowed to maintain a three-year-old embargo to stop Iranian-backed Hamas from bringing arms to Gaza. Back home, questions were asked about how an operation that aimed to avoid bloodshed had gone so badly and publicly wrong. The White House meeting had seemed intended to soothe ties with Obama, which have been strained by differences over Jewish settlement construction that delayed the recent revival of peace talks with the Palestinians. But Obama must also balance support for Israel, which is popular with American voters, with understanding for an angry Turkey and other Muslim US allies. Palestinian Presi dent Mahmoud Abbas said: "What Israel has committed on board the Freedom Flotilla was a massacre. Even after the vessels were escorted into Israel's Ashdod port, accounts of the predawn operation some 120 km out in the Mediterranean were sketchy and limited to those from the Israeli side. Activists were held incommunicado, though Israeli officials said most would be free to go in due course. Military night-vision video showed commandos being winched down, only to be surrounded. Some Israeli commentators asked why commanders put troops into a position where they were cornered. An Israeli minister admitted plans to maintain the blockade on Hamas while avoiding an international incident had backfired in spectacular fashion. "It's going to be a big scandal, no doubt about it," Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said. One marine told reporters his squad went in with anti-riot paintball guns but, fearing for their lives, resorted to using normal pistols or leapt overboard. In military footage, a commando fired a paintball at a man who seemed to be clubbing an Israeli. Other video sh owed a commando fire a pistol, two-handed. "We were prepared to face human rights activists and we found people who came for war," the marine told reporters. A reporter with the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, who was sailing on the Turkish ship leading the flotilla, said the Israelis fired at the vessel before boarding it, wounding the captain. "These savages are killing people here, please help," a Turkish television reporter said. The broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, "Everybody shut up!" At Barzilai hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, a few activists trickled in under military escort. "They hit me," said a Greek man, who se right arm was in a sling, calling the Israelis "pirates". He did not give his name and later was escorted away with a neck brace. Israeli military officials said nine activists died on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish cruise ship carrying nearly 600 people. Most of the dead were Turks, one senior Israeli officer said. Military officials said some activists had snatched pistols from the boarding party, which responded to gunfire. Seven troops and 20 protesters were injured, the military said. Some officials had earlier put the death toll at 10 or even higher. The bloodshed sparked street protests and government ire in Turkey, long Israel's lone Muslim ally in the region. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamist views and outreach to Iran and other Israeli enemies are blamed by many in Israel for souring relations, said before cutting short a trip to Chile: "This action, totally contrary to the principles of international law, is inhumane state terrorism. I'd like to address those who supported this operation: You support bloodshed and we support peace, hum anity and law. Ankara also cancelled joint military exercises and recalled its ambassador. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said there were up to 400 Turks among nearly 600 people aboard the Mavi Maramara, the Turkish cruise vessel where the firing broke out. After chairing an emergency ministerial meeting in place of the absent Erdogan, Arinc said in a televised speech: "We condemn Israel's attack at the highest level." Armed Forces Chief General Ilker Basbug, who also rushed home from an official visit to Egypt, spok e to his Israeli counterpart and said the use of military power in the incident was unacceptable. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who was on his way to Washington from Latin America, was reported to have spoken on the telephone with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak. President Abdullah Gul said Turkey was demanding that Israel "swiftly carry out all necessary inquiries on the issue and punish those responsible". Israeli ambassador Gabby Levy was summoned to the foreign ministry as thousands took to the streets to protest the assault that came atop already deteriorating ties between the two former allies. Turkey asked for a detailed report on the fate of all people who were aboard the vessels, a Turkish diplomat told AFP, adding that they included nationals from 33 coun tries. Levy was also told that the Turkish passengers and the wounded should be repatriated to Turkey in the shortest possible time and the vessels released, he said. Turkish police were put on high alert as some 10,000 people marched on Istanbul's central Taksim square from the Israeli consulate where they had converged after news of the raid broke. "Damn Israel!", "A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, revenge, revenge!" chanted the protestors, carrying Turkish and Palestinian flags, as they marched towards the square, an AFP photographer reported. "Close down the Zionist embassy," read a banner carried by the crowd. A crowd of some 500 people gathered outside Levy's residence in Ankara, shouting "Damn Israel" and reciting prayers. By targeting civilians, Israel has once again shown its disregard for human life and peaceful initiatives," a foreign ministry statement said. "This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas and constitutes a flagrant breach of international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations.... Israel will have to bear the consequences of this behaviour," it said. Israel told tourists in Turkey to stay indoors and dismissed any accusations that it had broken international law by boarding foreign ships far beyond its territorial waters. Israeli forces were on high alert but aside from scattered scuffles, there was little trouble with Palestinian protesters. Robin Churchill, a professor of international law at the University of Dundee in Scotland, said the Israeli commandos boarded the ship outside of Israel's territorial waters. "As far as I can see, there is no lega l basis for boarding these ships," Churchill said. Demonstrations in European cities included Paris, Stockholm, Rome and Athens, where police used teargas against protesters who threw stones and bottles near Israel's embassy to Greece. The Arab League condemned what it called a "terrorist act". Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called it "inhuman". More worryingly for Israel, its friends showed little sympathy. The outrage sounded at times more uniformly hostile to the Jewish state than during its offensive in Gaza, which killed 1,400 Palestinians in Dec 2008 and Jan 2009. Israel said it launched that war to curb Hamas rocket fire on its towns. But it has found it harder to win understanding for an embargo limiting supplies to 1.5 million people in Gaza, including cement the UN says it needs to repair bomb damage. A senior UN official responsible for the aid on which Gaza depends said: "Such tragedies are entirely avoidable if Israel heeds the repeated calls of the international community to end its counterproductive and unacceptable blockade of Gaza." - Agencies [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
