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New York:
The UN Security Council has condemned acts leading to the deaths of
civilians during Monday's Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid
convoy that was headed to the Gaza Strip.
In a formal statement adopted after more than 10 hours of
closed-door negotiations, the council requested the immediate
release of ships and civilians held by Israel and called for an
impartial investigation.
Prior to the emergency session, almost all the 15 members of the
council deplored the attack that left at least 10 activists on board
the Freedom Flotilla dead and dozens injured.
"It is clearer than ever that Israel's restrictions on access to
Gaza must be lifted in line with Security Council Resolution 1860,"
Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador, said on Tuesday.
"The current closure is unacceptable and counterproductive," Grant
said.
France, Russia and China also called for the blockade to be lifted
and for an independent inquiry.
The United States, Israel's traditional ally, did not request
specifically that Israel end its blockade on the Gaza Strip. But it
hinted that the measure at least should be eased.
Alejandro Wolff, US deputy permanent representative, said that
Washington was "deeply disturbed by recent violence and regrets
tragic loss of life and injuries".
Deadly raid
The statements reflected the international community's strong
disapprovalof Monday's events in the high seas, when Israeli
soldiers stormed the six ships in international waters about 65km
off the Gaza coast.
The ships with about 700 pro-Palestinian activists were carrying
10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid for Gaza, the coastal territory
under a crippling Israeli siege.
Israel insisted that its troops had acted in self-defence after
being attacked by those onboard.
But Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, onboard the lead ship Mavi Marmara,
said troops opened fire even after passengers had raised a white
flag.
Israeli troops have taken the ships to the port of Ashdod after
seizing them.
Activists who were injured are being treated in hospitals while the
rest have been detained and subjected to interrogations.
The whereabouts of Al Jazeera's Elshayyal was unknown as the Israeli
military imposed an information blackout.
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Ashdod, said that some
of those detained are being sent back to their countries, while
others are being imprisoned.
"We are still trying to get information in terms of the condition of
the passengers...
"An identification and interrogation process has gotten under way,
to identify the individuals and then provide them with the option of
being deported immediately or sent to prison here," he said.
Global outrage
The attack on Freedom Flotilla has incensed people, triggering mass
protestsin cities across the world.
Thousands marched in the streets of Istanbul, London and Amman in
Jordan among other cities on Monday, denouncing the deadly raid on
the ships that sought to deliver much-needed supplies to Gazans.
But Israel has remained defiant with Mark Regev, its government
spokesman, insisting that "Israel was totally within its rights
under international law to intercept the ship and to take it to the
port of Ashdod".
He said the people on board the flotilla were not peaceful
activists.
"They are part of the IHH, which is a radical Turkish Islamist
organisation which has been investigated by Western governments and
by the Turkish government itself in the past for their links with
terrorist organisations."
Reporting from Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland said Israel's
reaction has largely been of defiance.
"Many [Israeli citizens] have flocked to the port of Ashdod to
basically express their rejection of what they see as the foreign
media's negative spin on events.
"...Israeli spin masters have been going into overdrive, doing their
best possible to spin this event as though the Israeli commandos
were not the ones attacking but rather the attack was perpetrated by
people on board," she said.
Israeli 'cover-up'
But Israeli efforts notwithstanding, the country has come in for
strong censure.
Murat Mercan, the head of Turkey's foreign relations committee, said
that activists on board had links to terrorist organisations was
Israel's way of covering up its mistake.
"Any allegation that the members of this ship is attached to al-Qaeda
is a big lie because there are Israeli civilians, Israeli
authorities, Israeli parliamentarians on board the ship," he told Al
Jazeera.
"Does he [Regev] think that those are also attached to al-Qaeda?"
Mark Taylor, an international legal expert, told Al Jazeera that
every state, including Israel, has the right to self-defence.
"In this case, we're looking at a humanitarian aid convoy, with
prominent people and activists, clearly not a military target in any
way whatsoever."
Israeli media reported that many of the dead were Turkish nationals.
Hamas, the Palestinian group which governs the Gaza Strip, said the
assault was a "massacre" and called on the international community
to intervene.
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, urged Arabs and Muslims to
show their anger by staging protests outside Israeli embassies
across the globe.
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