Israeli military forces have used lethal force against peaceful humanitarian activists in international waters:
“Israeli naval commandos shot dead at least 16 people and wounded over 30 on Monday morning, as they attacked an unarmed humanitarian and civilian flotilla – in international waters – trying to bring desperately needed aid to Gaza. The death toll was expected to rise.
“Chaos, confusion and outrage surround the exact circumstances under which the Free Gaza (FG) flotilla was stormed with live footage from a Turkish TV channel showing masked and heavily armed Israeli soldiers commandeering one of the six (FG) boats, the ‘Mavi Marmara’.
“An Al Jazeera correspondent who was on board, reported that Israeli troops used live ammunition during the operation. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) countered that some of those on board attacked soldiers with sharp objects, including knives.
“The organisers disputed this, saying the IDF opened fire as soon as they boarded the boats.
“It is uncertain how the Turkish channel managed to air the live footage. Israeli authorities had scrambled the boats’ communications system shortly before the commando raid in a bid to prevent the crews from using navigational equipment and contacting the crews on the other boats.”
Juan Cole suggests that the shooting may have come when Israeli soldiers overreacted, but frankly any time you set up this sort of military encounter you have to expect the possibility for fatalities caused by the side with all the weapons. This was a brutal attempt to enforce a brutal and inhumane siege of one of the world’s most impoverished patches of land.
(Crossposted to my blog)
Related posts:
I’m not sure what people expect when they start beating and clubbing soldiers who’ve just showed up but haven’t done anything yet. “Overreacting” is not the word that comes to mind for me, from this account of what the soldiers were facing:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3896796,00.html
Well lets see if you are in international waters and someone tries to board you and you try to stop them than, oh that must be your bad. Oh I forgot Israel can do no wrong. They can kick you out of your home, take your water, kill your crops, put you in a ghetto, have secrete stashes of nukes, but we should all cheer them on. America should continue to fund them because well they really help our public relations in the middle east. Isreal really helps keep our military industrial complex alive and well and of course helps fund our federal elections.
Also, the activists who have returned to Turkey have said the Israelis fired shots before they came onboard.