[Updated 10:57 a.m.] Here are the latest developments involving the pre-dawn Monday raid by Israeli military on a flotilla of six ships carrying aid for the Palestinian territory of Gaza:
LATEST UPDATES
– An Israeli Cabinet member said Israel warned Turkey repeatedly that the Gaza-bound aid flotilla would need to land at Israel's Ashdod port so the material could be checked before the supplies were sent to Gaza.
"Nobody wanted to listen," Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog told CNN on Wednesday.
– The foreign flotilla detainees held at Beer Sheva prison are headed home, the Israel Prisons Authority said Wednesday. All the detainees have left the facility and were on their way to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv as of Wednesday afternoon.
– Four Israeli Arabs on the Gaza aid flotilla remained in Israeli custody Wednesday, according to Israeli sources and the Free Gaza Movement. A court ordered them held until next week.
– The Rachel Corrie, a ship with aid bound for Gaza, is 100 miles south of Crete and is planning to arrive in Gaza late Friday or early Saturday, according to the Free Gaza Movement.
– The European Campaign to End Siege on Gaza announced that it had already obtained the funding of the first three ships of the new fleet which will go to Gaza.
PREVIOUSLY REPORTED
THE DETAINEES
Scores of Turkish flotilla passengers headed home on Wednesday, and two seriously injured people will remain in the Jewish state for medical treatment, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Sixteen U.S. citizens were aboard a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla that was intercepted by Israel this week, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv said Wednesday.
Buses with 123 activists from the flotilla arrived in Jordan Wednesday. The group included 30 Jordanians and 93 others from 12 countries, including Bahrain, Pakistan, Kuwait, Morocco, Algeria, Oman, Indonesia, Yemen, Malaysia, Mauritania, Azerbaijan and Syria.
THE RAID
Nine people died in the raid, according to both Israel and the Free Gaza Movement, organizer of the flotilla.
Free Gaza Movement said dozens of its passengers were wounded. Seven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the raid, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
Israeli minister of public affairs claims an IDF soldier was shot with non-IDF gun during raid.
Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, on Tuesday told three soldiers wounded in the aid flotilla confrontation that they "operated outstandingly" and "there is still a need to further investigate what occurred."
An Israeli senior military official speaking on condition of anonymity said most of the deaths were Turks. Twenty people were wounded. One American was among the wounded, the U.S. State Department said.
All six boats in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla were boarded by Israeli naval commandos, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Only one, the Mavi Marmara, offered resistance; the other five surrendered peacefully, the military said.
THE REACTION
Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua's first lady, announced Tuesday that the Central American nation has "broken relations" with Israel in the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid.
The Organization of Islamic Conference has called for an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers to discuss the developments in Gaza after the Israeli raid on the aid flotilla. The meeting will be held Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday to express condolences for the deaths and injuries from Israel's raid on a flotilla of ships backed by Turkey, the White House said. Erdogan's office said the prime minister told Obama that "Israel is about to face the danger of losing its only friend in the region."
Egypt will keep the Rafah Crossing border crossing open for only a few days, Palestinian officials said. The border crossing links Egypt and Gaza.
Turkey's foreign minister said Tuesday that his government is "not happy" with the U.S. response to Israel's raid on the flotilla, which was carrying humanitarian goods bound for blockaded Gaza.
THE CONVOY
Israeli forces have unloaded the humanitarian cargo from the aid flotilla and taken it into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the Israeli military said.
The six ships - three passenger and three cargo vessels - left Cyprus on Sunday, carrying more than 10,000 tons of aid and 600 passengers from more than 20 countries, said the Free Gaza Movement, a Cyprus-based human rights group. Called the Freedom Flotilla, the convoy was also organized by the pro-Palestinian Turkish organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi or Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).
The convoy approached Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade, and was shadowed by three warships. Free Gaza had reported Sunday that they had been contacted by the Israeli navy. Israel wanted the flotilla to dock at Ashdod port, where supplies would be unloaded and transferred to Gaza.
Israeli civilians were subjected to rockets and missiles fired from Gaza that had originated from places like Iran and Syria, so the military prevents all ships from reaching the Gaza shore so that ammunition or missiles cannot be brought in, said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. Erdogan said Monday that the vessels in the flotilla were inspected before they left port to make sure the cargo did not include weapons.
Israel instituted a blockade in Gaza in January 2006 when Hamas won democratic elections in the Palestinian territories. Since the summer of 2008, five flotillas have gotten through the blockage to deliver humanitarian goods, the Free Gaza Movement said.
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Now it is time for facts
1) Turkey is not a Moslem country,it is a republic. Plus it is the strictest secular country in the world. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan can be called Islamic countries because they are ruled by sharia law
2) I heard Greek and German activitists (not Moslem) stating that they were tortured by elecktro shock
3)Israelies are very right. These aid ships did not aim to deliver aid, they aimed to BREAK THE SIEGE which is against human rights anyway
4) I would not care about sadistic Israel and masochist Palestinians unless Turkish citizens got killed. I hope they both go to hell soon. World is sick and tired of them. .
5) I suggest all Americans read this http://www.aztlan.net/jewsusarmedforces.htm before deciding who is right and who is wrong. They might see how world sees them through this article and realize their real value.
Cimcime
Now it is time for facts
3)Israelies are very right. These aid ships did not aim to deliver aid, they aimed to BREAK THE SIEGE which is against human rights anyway
Actually when it comes to facts Israel has no legal reason or right to blockade Gaza in the first place.
Ann McCoy
“ISRAEL COMMITTED AN ACT OF KIDNAPING AND PIRACY IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS. Aid workers defending themselves with chairs are hardly a threat. THE USA NEEDS TO STOP ALL AID TO THIS DANGEROUS/ PARANOID/ HOSTILE NATION/ The 6 billion we send to Israel could go to education, and things needed in America. Half of our government are duel citizes Israeli nationals, and the media is a PR arm of Israel. Watch the BBC Europe for better coverage or read the Irish Times. Wake up.”
Ann, I totally agree with everything you said above and let me add Obama must send the US Navy into this region to escort any more humanitarian ships that want to go to Gaza pushing the warmongering Israelis aside.
Those Who Bless Israel Will Be Blessed, and Those Who Curse Israel Will Be Cursed
In the Book of Genesis, Chapter 12, Verse 1-3, we see what God says about His response to how people treat Israel:
And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.
In the Book of Numbers, where the Bible is telling us about the Nation of Israel that God delivers out of bondage in Egypt, it tells us:
He crouched. He lay down as a lion, and as a great lion. Who shall stir him up? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you.
Susie...wake up. Religion is the cause of most wars...I doubt GOD wants us to kill all who are not of YOUR religion!!!
Ok – so where are the paintball splatters?? Unless they were planted by Israel they were never there and never happened. Doesn't everyone get tired of Israel always whining about "poor me – nobody likes me" - guess you don't ha ve to wonder why anymore.
It must not be so easy to explain something that a lot of people always killed by .....(any country or reason).
really REALLY horrible.
Nobody has right to kill people maybe except wars...But this events
We can not be calm to these events. Becouse the world is a small village from now on...
Please RESPECT the life at least EVEN IF you wont respect the religions.
There is someone except us........
Considering how tense the current political situation is, the activists really should have visited the Israeli port of Ashdod to have the contents of the flotilla checked over prior to entering Gaza. They easily could have predicted that Israel would respond with violence and fear of terroristic weapons entering the area.
However, as could also have been predicted, the IDF completely overreacted to the situation. They can’t commit piratical acts simply because they feel threatened. They should have controlled the situation without violence and asked for international guidance before proceeding with military action. In this way, the casualties could have been avoided and precious political time (which could have been attributed to finding that peaceful two-state solution) could have been saved.
Concerning this argument, we believe it is important to consider both sides of the issue. First we would like to analyze the Palestinian point of view of the story. Palestine has never been recognized as a state and obviously they have a hard time accepting the fact that Israel, their enemy, has the right to control and check everything coming into their area which was unjustly conquered by force. According to the agreement the Palestinians should have landed at Israel’s Ashdod port so the material could be checked before the supplies were sent to Gaza. By ignoring this accord they were sure to cause a violent reaction from the Israelis. However Israel’s reaction was too harsh and could have been avoided also preventing the nine deaths which occurred. Considering now the opposite point of view we need to take into account the threat and fear Israelis have to face each day due to Palestinian terrorism. According to the decisions made upon the Gaza strip blockade between Israel and the UN, Israel had the right to stop the flotilla before it reached the Israeli territorial water therefore in international waters. Israeli commandos boarded the ship after having requested their departure, weren’t heavily armed and were attacked by armed activists. Looking at it from a neutral point of view we can’t really be sure about whose fault it is, this is why this topic remains very controversial.
Israel doesn't have any authority in international waters. Israel can't decide what Palestine imports in it's own territory; this problem is for international associations like the UN. The Israeli didn't have any right to enter a Turk boat and check it. Said this, the boat, as agreed, had to stop at Ashdod for the Israelis to check it and see if they had something that they couldn't bring in the Gaza Strip. They did not follow the agreement and didn't stop at the harbor. This is what made the Israeli attack the boat, but they didn't have any right to do so, because as we said, the turks were not going against a law, but only against an agreement.
I hope a Tsunami will reach Israel and wash the everybody into the sea. It will be God's act...and the Palestinians will go back to their land...Amen
Although the actions seem severe. Israel has the right to defend it citizens at all cost. We as Americans have done it and continue to do it all the time, maybe that's why our reaction is so strong, because in their actions we see ourselves.
Israel can defend itself all it wants, in Israel! They have a habit of taking action against targets outside their jurisdiction. One of the American's on the ship was also on the USS Liberty; which was attacked, by Israel, in International water.
I do not agree with you. What will happen if we blockade the entire USA and our bordering nations do the same?
ISRAEL COMMITTED AN ACT OF KIDNAPING AND PIRACY IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS. Aid workers defending themselves with chairs are hardly a threat. THE USA NEEDS TO STOP ALL AID TO THIS DANGEROUS/ PARANOID/ HOSTILE NATION/ The 6 billion we send to Israel could go to education, and things needed in America. Half of our government are duel citizes Israeli nationals, and the media is a PR arm of Israel. Wathch the BBC Europe for better coverage or read the Irish Times. Wake up.
So let's start seizing ships in international waters? Great...
Ann, you say half of our government are duel citizens Israeli nationals. Are you talking about the United States? Let's see how that would break down. President, vice president, House of Representatives, Senate, Governors, Lieutenant Governors, Mayors, City Councils. How many of these people hold dual citizenship. If you know, please, let us know their names. If you don't know what you're talking about, please stop making wild accusations. I think it's bad what Israel did. Where is the line in the water where Israel says, don't go past this line? Did the flotilla pass that line? If not, doesn't matter, if they were in international water and hadn't passed that line, then they didn't break a blockade and Israel did not have a right to board the vessels.