{"id":19539,"date":"2010-06-07T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T20:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=19539"},"modified":"2017-11-28T18:13:38","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:13:38","slug":"greece-has-halted-its-joint-exercise-with-israel-in-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/07\/greece-has-halted-its-joint-exercise-with-israel-in-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece has halted its joint exercise with Israel in protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mainStory3\">news from israel intelligence<\/div>\n<div>Israel braces for Turkish,  Hizballah, Hamas reprisals. Greece halts joint drill<br \/>\nDEBKAfile       Special Report      May 31, 2010, 11:35 PM (GMT+02:00)<\/div>\n<div id=\"photoContainer\">\n<div id=\"caption\">Turkish Chief of  Staff Gen. Ilker Basburg<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>debkafile&#8217;s  military sources report Israeli concerns that Turkey may not confine itself to strong  diplomatic retaliation for the Israel Navy&#8217;s seizure Monday, May 31, of  the Marmora, the Turkish vessel leading the flotilla for breaking the Gaza blockade and  resort to military action along with the Iranian-backed Hizballah and  Hamas. A statement from Ankara threatened  &#8220;unprecedented and incalculable&#8221; reprisals, following which the Turkish  chief of staff Gen. Ilker Basbug was recalled urgently to Ankara from a visit to Egypt. Greece has since halted its joint  exercise with Israel  in protest against the\u00a0naval action.<br \/>\ndebkafile reports  from Ankara  that the Turkish government is planning to continue pounding the  Israeli blockade with more flotillas and have them escorted by Turkish  warships and fighter jets. Israel  merchant vessels moored outside Ashdod  port have been instructed to sail into port and take shelter in case of  missile attacks from the Gaza Strip against Ashdod  and Ashkelon.<br \/>\nMonday morning, Israeli warplanes headed west over the Mediterranean in support of the still ongoing  Israeli commando operation aboard the Turkish Marmora, the scene of  violent clashes between Israeli troops and the 600 &#8220;peace activists,&#8221;  some of them armed. Ankara  later reported 15 dead aboard the vessel.<br \/>\nIsraeli army spokesman, Col. Avi Beneyahu, called the incident &#8220;an act  of terror on the high seas.&#8221; Far from being a humanitarian mission, the  flotilla was sponsored personally by Turkish prime minister Recep  Erdogan to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and permit arms supplies and  terrorists to reach the Strip unrestricted. It aimed at provoking a  widely publicized international incident with fatalities and showing Israel  using strong-arm tactics against unarmed peace-lovers.<\/p>\n<p>Its leaders and the nations involved therefore refused to heed warnings  that the vessels would be prevented from entering Gaza Port  and rejected Israeli offers to ferry their aid cargo overland to the  Gaza Strip. Population within missile range of Gaza advised to take shelter in  secured areas<span style=\"font-family: Arial; color: #000000; font-size: x-small;\">.<\/span><br \/>\nNine activists were killed battling with Israeli troops, and dozens  injured.\u00a0Ten Israeli soldiers were wounded, two critically. They were  all ferried to Israeli hospitals by helicopter.<\/p>\n<p>The pro-Hamas passengers were described as mobbing the Israeli  commandos as they were dropped onto the Marmara&#8217;s deck, using knives and  iron bars to beat them and shooting with a sidearm snatched from a  soldier and at least two other pistols recovered empty from two of the  bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli security forces are preparing for the Lebanese Hizballah and  Palestinian Hamas to go back to shooting missiles and rockets against  Israeli towns, in support of the seaborne attack on Israeli commandos.  The police are also on special alert in and around Israeli Arab  communities, after Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyah called them out  on a general strike, and the Holy Places, especially in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt will face  pressure to end its joint embargo on Gaza  with Israel  at the Arab League Council meeting urgently Tuesday, June 1.  \u00a0Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas demanded the session.<br \/>\nDemonstrations against Israel were staged in Syrian  and Lebanese towns. Jordan\u00a0hands stiff complaint to head of Israeli  diplomatic mission in Amman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>news from israel intelligence Israel braces for Turkish, Hizballah, Hamas reprisals. Greece halts joint drill DEBKAfile Special Report May 31, 2010, 11:35 PM (GMT+02:00) Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basburg debkafile&#8217;s military sources report Israeli concerns that Turkey may not confine itself to strong diplomatic retaliation for the Israel Navy&#8217;s seizure Monday, May 31, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-19539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19539","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=19539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}