{"id":19350,"date":"2010-06-01T07:37:26","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T05:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=19350"},"modified":"2014-01-05T19:41:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T17:41:12","slug":"deadly-israeli-raid-draws-condemnation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/01\/deadly-israeli-raid-draws-condemnation\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Israeli Raid Draws Condemnation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/FLOTILLA_span\/FLOTILLA-articleLarge.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"257\" \/><\/p>\n<div>Pool photo by Uriel Sinai<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--[if lt IE 8]> <mce:script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!              var wImage = $('wideImage').getElementsByTagName(\"img\")[0].getAttribute('src');             $('wideImage').getElementsByTagName(\"img\")[0].setAttribute('src',\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/global\/backgrounds\/transparentBG.gif\");             var filter = \"progId:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='\"+wImage+\"', sizingMethod='scale' )\";             $('wideImage').getElementsByTagName(\"img\")[0].style.filter = filter;              \/\/ --> <!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<h6>By ISABEL KERSHNER<\/h6>\n<h6>Published: May 31, 2010<\/h6>\n<p>JERUSALEM \u2014 Israel faced intense international condemnation and growing domestic questions  on Monday after a raid by naval commandos that killed nine people, many  of them Turks, on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza.<\/p>\n<div><!--forceinline--><\/p>\n<div>\n<h6>Multimedia<\/h6>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOTILLA_SS.html?ref=middleeast\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOATILLA_SS-slide-CYK4\/20100531_FLOATILLA_SS-slide-CYK4-thumbWide.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"126\" \/> Photographs <\/span><\/div>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOTILLA_SS.html?ref=middleeast\"> Flotilla Raid Prompts Protests<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Related<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/middleeast\/01policy.html?ref=middleeast\"> Israeli Raid Complicates U.S. Ties and Push for Peace<\/span> (June 1, 2010)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/middleeast\/01turkey.html?ref=middleeast\"> Raid Jeopardizes Turkey Relations<\/span> (June 1, 2010)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/thelede.blogs.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/31\/echoes-of-raid-on-exodus-ship-in-1947\/?ref=middleeast\"> The Lede Blog: Echoes of Raid on Ship in 1947<\/span> (May 31, 2010)<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/middleeast\/01flotilla-map\/01flotilla-map-articleInline.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"221\" \/><\/div>\n<h6>The New York Times<\/h6>\n<p><span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOTILLA_SS.html\">More  Photos \u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Enlarge  This Image<\/div>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/jp-FLOTILLA1_span\/jp-FLOTILLA1-articleInline.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"126\" \/> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h6>Erhan Sevenler\/Anatolian Agency, via European  Pressphoto Agency<\/h6>\n<p>On Sunday, before an Israeli raid, activists held a  news conference aboard the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla taking aid  to Gaza.                             <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOTILLA_SS.html\">More  Photos \u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Enlarge  This Image<\/div>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/jp-FLOTILLA3\/jp-FLOTILLA3-articleInline.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"129\" \/> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h6>Menahem Kahana\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/h6>\n<p>After the Israeli raid, a speedboat escorted the  ship, now with Israeli forces on board, to the port of Ashdod.                             <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/slideshow\/2010\/05\/31\/world\/middleeast\/20100531_FLOTILLA_SS.html\">More  Photos \u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--brightcove player begins --><\/p>\n<div><!--NYT video player embed code *starts here* - Build# 2008.09.17 --> <script src=\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/bcvideo\/1.0\/iframe\/embed.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n\t\t\tNYT_VideoPlayerStart( {\n\t\t\t   playerType  : \"article\",\n\t\t\t   videoId     : \"1247467955133\"\n\t\t\t} );\n\/\/ ]]><\/script> <!--NYT video player embed code *ends here* --><\/div>\n<p><!--brightcove player ends -->Turkey, Israel\u2019s most important friend in the Muslim world, recalled its  ambassador and canceled planned military exercises with Israel as the  countries\u2019 already tense relations soured even further. The United  Nations Security Council met in emergency session over the attack,  which occurred in international waters north of Gaza, and Prime Minister  Benjamin  Netanyahu of Israel was flying home after canceling a Tuesday  meeting with President  Obama.<\/p>\n<p>With street protests erupting around the world, Mr. Netanyahu defended  the Israeli military\u2019s actions, saying the commandos, enforcing what  Israel says is a legal blockade, were set upon by passengers on the  Turkish ship they boarded and fired only in self-defense. The military <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.mfa.gov.il\/MFA\/Government\/Communiques\/2010\/Israel_Navy_warns_flotilla_31-May-2010.htm\">released  a video<\/span> of the early moments of the raid to support that claim.<\/p>\n<p>Israel said the violence was instigated by pro-<span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/p\/palestinians\/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">Palestinian<\/span> activists who presented themselves as humanitarians but had come ready  for a fight. Organizers of the flotilla accused the Israeli forces of  opening fire as soon as they landed on the deck, and released <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/news\/middleeast\/2010\/05\/201053113252437484.html\">videos<\/span> to support their case. Israel released video taken from one of its vessels to supports its own account of events.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli public seemed largely to support the navy, but policy  experts questioned preparations for the military operation, whether  there had been an intelligence failure and whether the Israeli  insistence on stopping the flotilla had been counterproductive. Some  commentators were calling  for the resignation of Ehud Barak,  the defense minister.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government failed the test of results; blaming the organizers of  the flotilla for causing the deaths by ignoring Israel\u2019s orders to turn  back is inadequate,\u201d wrote Aluf Benn, a columnist for Haaretz, on the newspaper\u2019s Web site on  Monday, calling for a national committee of inquiry. \u201cDecisions taken by  the responsible authorities must be probed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/28\/world\/middleeast\/28mideast.html\">flotilla<\/span> of cargo ships and passenger boats was carrying 10,000 tons of aid for  Gaza, where the Islamic militant group Hamas holds  sway, in an attempt to challenge Israel\u2019s military blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>The raid and its deadly consequences have thrown Israel\u2019s policy of  blockading Gaza into the international limelight; at the Security  Council on Monday <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/06\/01\/world\/middleeast\/01nations.html\">voices  were raised<\/span> against the blockade, and the pressure to abandon it is  bound to intensify.<\/p>\n<p>Israel had vowed not to let the flotilla reach the shores of Gaza, where  Hamas, an organization sworn to Israel\u2019s destruction, took over by force  in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>Named the Freedom Flotilla, and led by the pro-<span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/p\/palestinians\/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">Palestinian<\/span> Free Gaza Movement and a Turkish  organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi,  the convoy had converged at sea near Cyprus and set out on the final  leg of its journey on Sunday afternoon. Israel warned the vessels to  abort their mission, describing it as a provocation.<\/p>\n<p>The confrontation began shortly before midnight on Sunday when Israeli  warships intercepted the aid flotilla, according to a person on one  boat. The Israeli military warned the vessels that they were entering a  hostile area and that the Gaza shore was under blockade.<\/p>\n<p>The vessels refused the military\u2019s request to dock at the Israeli port  of Ashdod, north of Gaza, and continued toward their destination.<\/p>\n<p>Around 4 a.m. on Monday, naval commandos came aboard the Turkish ship,  the Mavi Marmara, having been lowered by ropes from helicopters onto the  decks.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, the operation seems to have gone badly wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials say that the soldiers were dropped into an ambush and  were attacked with clubs, metal rods and knives.<\/p>\n<p>An Israeli official said that the navy was planning to stop five of the  six vessels of the flotilla with large nets that interfere with  propellers, but that the sixth was too large for that. The official said  there was clearly an intelligence failure in that the commandos were  expecting to face passive resistance, and not an angry, violent  reaction.<\/p>\n<p>The Israelis had planned to commandeer the vessels and steer them to  Ashdod, where their cargo would be unloaded and, the authorities said,  transferred overland to Gaza after proper inspection.<\/p>\n<p>The military said in a statement that two activists were later found  with pistols taken from Israeli commandos. It accused the activists of  opening fire, \u201cas evident by the empty pistol magazines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another soldier said the orders were to neutralize the passengers, not  to kill them.<\/p>\n<p>But the forces \u201chad to open fire in order to defend themselves,\u201d the  navy commander, Vice Adm. Eliezer Marom, said at a news conference in  Tel Aviv, adding, \u201cTheir lives were at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At least seven soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously. The  military said that some suffered gunshot wounds; at least one had been  stabbed.<\/p>\n<p>Some Israeli officials said they had worried about a debacle from the  start, and questioned Israel\u2019s broader security policies.<\/p>\n<p>Einat Wilf, a Labor Party member of Parliament who sits on the  influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that she had  warned Mr. Barak and others well in advance that the flotilla was a  public relations issue and should not be dealt with by military means.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis had nothing to do with security,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cThe  armaments for Hamas were not coming from this flotilla.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fatalities all occurred aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish passenger  vessel that was carrying about 600 activists under the auspices of  Insani Yardim Vakfi, an organization also known as I.H.H. Israeli  officials have characterized it as a dangerous Islamic organization with  terrorist links.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the organization, founded in 1992 to collect aid for the Bosnians,  is now active in 120 countries and has been present at recent disaster  areas like Haiti and New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur volunteers were not trained military personnel,\u201d said Yavuz Dede,  deputy director of the organization. \u201cThey were civilians trying to get  aid to Gaza. There were artists, intellectuals and journalists among  them. Such an offensive cannot be explained by any terms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There were no immediate accounts available from the passengers of the  Turkish ship, which arrived at the naval base in Ashdod on Monday  evening, where nearly three dozen were arrested, many for not giving  their names. The base was off limits to the news media and declared a  closed military zone.<\/p>\n<p>The injured had been flown by helicopter to Israeli hospitals. At the  Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, relatives of  injured soldiers were gathered outside an intensive care unit when a man  with a long beard, one of the wounded passengers, was wheeled by,  escorted by military police.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers of the flotilla, relying mainly on footage filmed by  activists on board the Turkish passenger ship, because all other  communications were down, blamed Israeli aggression for the deadly  results.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli soldiers dropped onto the deck and \u201copened fire on sleeping  civilians at four in the morning,\u201d said Greta Berlin, a leader of the  pro-<span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/p\/palestinians\/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">Palestinian<\/span> Free Gaza Movement, speaking by phone from Cyprus on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials said that international law allowed for the capture of  naval vessels in international waters if they were about to violate a  blockade. The blockade was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas  takeover of Gaza in 2007. Israel\u2019s deputy foreign minister, Danny  Ayalon, said Monday that the blockade was \u201caimed at preventing the  infiltration of terror and terrorists into Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite sporadic rocket fire from the Palestinian territory against  southern Israel, Israel says it allows enough basic supplies through  border crossings to avoid any acute humanitarian crisis. But it insists  that there will be no significant change so long as Hamas continues to  hold Gilad Shalit,  an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>The Free Gaza Movement has organized several aid voyages since the  summer of 2008, usually consisting of one or two vessels. The earliest  ones were allowed to reach Gaza. Others have been intercepted and forced  back, and one, last June, was commandeered by the Israeli Navy and  towed to Ashdod. This six-boat fleet was the most ambitious attempt yet  to break the blockade.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, Dina  Kraft from Tel Aviv, Rina Castelnuovo from Ashdod, Fares Akram from Gaza  and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pool photo by Uriel Sinai By ISABEL KERSHNER Published: May 31, 2010 JERUSALEM \u2014 Israel faced intense international condemnation and growing domestic questions on Monday after a raid by naval commandos that killed nine people, many of them Turks, on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Multimedia Photographs Flotilla Raid Prompts Protests Related Israeli Raid [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":783558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[1052],"class_list":["post-19350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-israeli-expansionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}