Israeli report clears soldiers in flotilla raid

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM — As Israel faces the prospect of another aid-supply ship trying to break its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military report Monday into the deadly raid on a previous flotilla found “mistakes” but no negligence on the part of soldiers and commanders.

The military commission, created after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, concluded that the soldiers were ill-prepared to confront an angry mob and resorted to live fire to regain control of the situation.

In its report, the commission found “no failure, but mistakes” and did not recommend disciplinary action against any individuals involved. “To my relief, the investigation found no negligence or failures on any significant matters,” said retired Gen. Giora Eiland, Israel’s former National Security Council director who led the internal military probe into the May 31 raid.

The report praised commandos who participated in the raid and said live fire was “justified,” military officials said. The full report was not released publicly.

The release of Israel’s first probe into the raid is not likely to satisfy international critics, particularly the Turkish government, which is demanding that Israel apologize and compensate the families of the nine Turkish citizens who were killed.

“By not finding fault with killing people, you’ve got to wonder what was the point of this kind of inquiry,” said Adam Shapiro of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the pro-Palestinian flotilla.

Eiland’s report did blame military intelligence agencies for underestimating the resistance soldiers would face and faulted commanders for ordering commandos to rappel from helicopters into the mob, where they were overwhelmed. Eiland concluded that activists disarmed Israeli soldiers and used the Israelis’ guns against them, shooting at least four.

His report suggested that people on the ship fired first and may have smuggled at least one gun aboard. Activists have said they had no arms on board.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by optical character recognition and not by a person. The clipping carries no masthead and no dated folio line, so the date recorded here could not be checked against anything printed on the page. Nothing on the page contradicts it.

Cite this clipping

"Israeli report clears soldiers in flotilla raid," Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2010. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2010-030. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2010-030