{"id":19527,"date":"2010-06-07T21:17:20","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T19:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=19527"},"modified":"2017-11-28T18:13:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:13:37","slug":"israel-turkey-gaza-in-covert-sea-war-hamas-frogmen-thwarted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/07\/israel-turkey-gaza-in-covert-sea-war-hamas-frogmen-thwarted\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel, Turkey, Gaza in covert sea war. Hamas frogmen thwarted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mainStory3\">news from israeli intelligence<\/div>\n<div>DEBKAfile       Exclusive Report      June 7, 2010, 11:11 AM (GMT+02:00)<\/div>\n<div id=\"photoContainer\">\n<div id=\"caption\">Turkey buries  victims of Kurdish PKK attack, suspects Israeli hand<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Israeli commando raid on a Turkish ferry heading to break the Gaza  blockade, in which 9 activists were killed, is turning out a week later  to have kicked off a semi-clandestine sea war between Israel, Turkey and  the Gaza-based Hamas, debkafile&#8217;s military sources report. Monday, June 7,  Hamas frogmen were on their way to a large-scale attack on an Israeli  target when their boat was intercepted by Israeli commandos and four or  five armed Palestinians killed. Turkey  is investigating suspicions of Israel&#8217;s  hand behind a deadly Kurdish terrorist attack on its Iskenderun base on  May 31.<br \/>\nOur military sources disclose Iskenderun&#8217;s  quietly growing role in the last two months as a military hub in  potential confrontations by Syria  and Hizballah with Israel.  In mid-May, Turkey  moved anti-air missile batteries into the port to defend targets in Syria and Lebanon  against potential Israeli air strikes from the eastern Mediterranean. This is the first time Ankara has provided Syria  and Hizballah with an air defense umbrella and come down on their side  in their conflict with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Some hours after Israeli commandos clashed with armed men aboard the  Mavi Marmara, Kurdish PKK rebel fighters attacked the Turkish naval base  at Iskenderun  on the Syrian border, killing seven Turkish seamen and injuring another  six. If Ankara can prove its suspicions,  it will be able to claim that Israel is involved by proxy  in terrorist attacks on Turkish soil. Diplomatic relations still in  force despite the frictions between the two countries will then be  severed, one step before a declaration of war.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan&#8217;s fiery abuse of Israel, Interior Minister Besir Atalay  said Sunday, June 6: &#8220;We have been working hard, especially to ascertain  what happened in the Iskenderun  incident.&#8221; Local media have suggested he is looking for Israeli covert  invovlement in the planning and execution of the deadly attack on the  Turkish naval base in revenge for the violence on the Marmara against  the Israeli naval boarding party.<\/p>\n<p>Early Monday, June 7, an Israeli Navy Commando force intercepted a  large group of armed Palestinian frogmen, members of the Hamas sea  commando, on their way from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli shore to the  north early Monday, June 7. Palestinian sources confirmed at least four  wet-suited terrorists were killed, and another four were missing in the  wake of a shootout in the Nahal Aza area of the Gaza Strip near Nuseirat  between their boat and Israeli troops.<br \/>\nThe IDF spokesman reported there were no Israeli casualties. debkafile&#8217;s military  sources report the Hamas seaborne unit aimed to prove itself capable by  striking an Israeli target of retaliating for the thwarting of the  Turkish-led campaign to break the Gaza blockade.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterwards, a Palestinian Qassam missile squad was spotted on  land near Jebalya preparing to fire into Israel. It was knocked out  by the Israeli Air force.<br \/>\ndebkafile:  Cross-fire from Gaza on Israeli border  patrols is frequent, almost daily and Hamas still launches several  Qassam missiles and mortar bombs into Israel every week, but  attempts attacks by Hamas or related groups from the sea are a new  development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>news from israeli intelligence DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 7, 2010, 11:11 AM (GMT+02:00) Turkey buries victims of Kurdish PKK attack, suspects Israeli hand The Israeli commando raid on a Turkish ferry heading to break the Gaza blockade, in which 9 activists were killed, is turning out a week later to have kicked off a semi-clandestine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":35732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[975,1059],"class_list":["post-19527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-gaza","tag-hamas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527","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=19527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}