JERUSALEM: Israel has rejected calls from the United Nations and others for an international investigation of its outrageous raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
Organizers of the flotilla say Israeli forces started firing as soon as they landed, but Israel claims that the passengers on the boat attacked its soldiers first.
Exposing Israeli lies, a Canadian witness told the media how an elderly man was shot and then bled to death after Israeli commandos stormed the ship.
Farooq Burney, who was on board the Mavi Marmara ship, also said activists who snatched pistols from the commandos removed the cartridges and threw them away, contradicting Israeli assertions the weapons were used against the boarding party.
Burney, director of a Qatari educational initiative, said the commandos waited more than an hour before treating the wounded, even though activists made a makeshift sign reading: "S.O.S. .. Please provide medical assistance."
"He just passed out in front of us and we couldn't see where he was hit so we opened up his lifejacket and we could clearly see that he was hit in the chest, he was losing a lot of blood," said Burney.
Israel's military is investigating the raid.
An official in the prime minister's office says there is "no case in recent history" where a democratic country's army involved in the deaths of civilians in an overseas operation has been subjected to an international investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement by the government. He made the remarks on Thursday.
Israel has refused to cooperate with previous international probes, most recently the UN investigation into Israel's 2009 war in the Gaza Strip that concluded that the Israelis committed war crimes.
The Turkish government confirmed on Thursday that eight Turks and a US national of Turkish origin were shot dead in the raid. A statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office released the identities of the nine victims, all men aged between 19 and 61, the youngest of whom was the Turk with US citizenship. The bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem examinations in Istanbul, the statement said. All the activists were shot dead, Anatolia news agency reported, adding that forensic experts found bullet marks on all the bodies and determined that one was shot at close range.
Meanwhile, South Africa is recalling its ambassador to Israel in the wake of the deadly raid, Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said on Thursday.
"The recall of ambassador Ishmael Coovadia is to show our strongest condemnation of the attack. This recent Israel aggression of attacking the aid flotilla severely impacts on finding a lasting solution to the problems of the region," Ebrahim told journalists in Pretoria. The South African government has already condemned the attack on the flotilla as "a gross violation of international law."
A Saudi convoy of humanitarian aid left Amman on Thursday for Gaza. The 25-truck convoy is carrying 1200 tons of flour and other food materials. It has been sent under the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli siege. This is the second installment of donations sent under the orders of the King.
The US Middle East peace envoy said on Thursday the lethal Israeli raid must not undermine indirect negotiations he is mediating between Israel and the Palestinians. George Mitchell, speaking in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said the incident showed the need for progress in the talks that got under way last month. "This incident underscores the need to make progress in negotiations," said Mitchell, who held talks on Wednesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Despite a wave of global outrage over the Israeli assault, US Vice President Joe Biden said Israel has the right to protect its security by boarding ships heading for Gaza. He, however, warned Washington would cajole its ally on the plight of Palestinians. The White House has so far refused to explicitly single out the Israeli government for blame. "I think Israel has an absolute right to deal with its security interest," Biden said in an interview with the "Charlie Rose" show broadcast by PBS television late Wednesday. "The truth of the matter is, Israel has a right to know — they're at war with Hamas... whether or not arms are being smuggled in.
But Biden also said Washington, which has branded the situation in Gaza "untenable," would continue to press Israel to improve living conditions for Palestinians under the Gaza blockade. "The one thing we have to do is not forget the plight of these Palestinians there ... they're in bad shape. "So we have put as much pressure and as much cajoling on Israel as we can to allow them to get building materials in."
The United States said Thursday it would probe the death of a Turkish-American killed in the raid, but said the FBI were not involved “at this point.” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters meanwhile the US ambassador in Ankara, Jim Jeffrey, had offered the victim’s family not only “our heartfelt condolences” but also any consular assistance it might need.
Clinton’s spokesman Philip Crowley earlier said the US government “will look into the circumstances of the death of an American citizen, as we would do anywhere in the world at all times.”
Crowley said “officials at a variety of levels” in Washington and in Israel were “evaluating the facts” surrounding the death of the dual US-Turkish national, identified as Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old born in Troy, New York.
