THE coast off Gaza is becoming the Middle East’s new flashpoint, with Iran and Hezbollah yesterday declaring intentions to break the Israeli blockade and four Palestinians divers shot dead by the Israeli navy.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said they were ready to provide a military escort to ships that sought to take humanitarian aid.
“Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities,” a spokesman for Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei said.
“It is Iran’s duty to defend the innocent people of Gaza.” Iran’s Red Crescent ambulance organisation plans to send two aid ships to Gaza. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also urged a new flotilla to Gaza. This came as four divers were shot dead yesterday, with Israel claiming the divers were preparing to attack the country.
Turkish newspaper Hurriyet published photographs yesterday of bloodied Israeli commandos who appeared to have been dragged below the deck of the Turkish ship the Mavi Marmara, boarded by Israeli commandos last week.
Israel said the pictures proved the commandos fired after being attacked by activists on board the ship trying to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Nine activists, all Turkish citizens, were killed and about 30 injured when Israeli commandos boarded the flotilla in international waters as it was sailing towards Gaza with humanitarian aid last week.
A group of former Israel naval commanders sent a letter yesterday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting government claims that it was merely a public relations and intelligence failure.
“We believe that the operation ended in disaster on a military and diplomatic level,” they said. “We do not agree with the claims that there was an intelligence gap that caused the outcome. “In addition, we do not accept the claim that there was a PR failure and we believe that the formula chosen ahead of time was doomed to fail.”
Israel’s biggest selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth carried a front-page article yesterday by one of the country’s leading journalists, Nahum Barnea, saying Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza and support sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
He wrote: “As of now, Israel has no leader and it has no leadership.” Israel is under pressure to agree to a committee of inquiry with international representatives to examine exactly what occurred during the flotilla confrontation.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spoken to Mr Netanyahu to urge him to agree to an investigation headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, with representatives from Israel and Turkey.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy telephoned Mr Netanyahu yesterday to urge him to agree to the proposal. Mr Netanyahu said yesterday: “There are many proposals for all kinds of committees, but we don’t want a problematic precedent to be set here for future events. “The decision must be made calmly and reasonably.”
But Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, ruled out any international inquiry. Israeli police yesterday arrested a man who had used the internet to urge people to kill the Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset, Haneen Zoabi, who had been part of the flotilla.
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