Gaza flotilla raid: 'We heard gunfire � then our ship turned into
lake of blood'
Activists aboard Mavi
Marmara speak of shock at rapid attacks and deny assaults on Israeli
commandos
She said the commandos then sent the women to a lower level of the
ship.
"They said we were terrorists � it was absurd. They came
into the part where the women were, lots and lots of them, dressed in
black and with gigantic weapons as if they were in a war. They
confiscated all of our telephones and all of our luggage and took
everything out of the bags and put it on the floor."
"We expected
them to shoot people in the legs, to shoot in the air, just to scare
people, but they were direct," she said, in a separate interview with
the Folha de S�o Paulo newspaper. "Some of them shot in the passengers'
heads. Many people were murdered � it was unimaginable."
The
released activists gave varying accounts of the level of resistance
mounted by the passengers.
Annette Groth, a German politician,
described at a press conference how she had seen Israeli soldiers
outside her cabin, after they had stormed the ship.
"They were
shooting without warning," she said. "It was like war � They had guns,
Taser weapons, some type of teargas and other weaponry, compared to
two-and-a-half wooden sticks we had between us. To talk of self-defence
is ridiculous."
We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to," he
said. "What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard?
The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the
bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired on with plastic bullets
and stunned with electric devices."
Greek activist Dimitris
Gielalis, aboard a third vessel, the Sfendoni, gave a similar account.
"Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within
seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat. They came up and
used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any
method we can think of, they used," he said.
The tough treatment
did not end after they were taken into custody in Israel, others said.
"During
their interrogation, many of them were badly beaten in front of us,"
said Aris Papadokostopoulos.
"There was great mistreatment after
our arrest," added Grigoropoulos.
Gaza flotilla activists deported to Jordan claim Israeli
mistreatment
Israel deports 124
pro-Palestinian activists to Jordan and transfers 200 more to Tel Aviv
airport amid increasing calls for independent inquiry into deadly
assault
One of the group deported to Jordan today, Walid al-Tabtabai, a
Kuwaiti politician who was on board one of the ships with other
activists from Muslim countries, said: "The Israelis roughed up and
humiliated all of us: women, men and children.
"They were brutal
and arrogant, but our message reached every corner of the world, that
the blockade on Gaza is unfair and should be lifted immediately."
Like
many passengers on the flotilla he insisted there were no weapons on
any of the ships.
An Algerian, Izzeddine Zahrour, said the Israeli
authorities "deprived us of food, water and sleep, and we weren't
allowed to use the toilet".
"It was an ugly kidnapping, and
subsequently bad treatment in Israeli jail," he said. "They handcuffed
us, pushed us around and humiliated us."
Mauritanian Mohammed
Gholam said Israel "wanted us to sign documents saying that we entered
Israel illegally".
An Algerian activist, who giving only a first
name of Sabrina, accused Israeli commandos of taking a one-year-old
child hostage.
"They point a gun to his head in front of his
Turkish parents to force the captain of our ship to stop sailing," she
said.
A Jordanian government spokesman said there were 30
Jordanians in the group. Jordan is one of two Arab nations with a signed
peace treaty with Israel. The Kuwaiti ambassador, Sheik Faisal
al-Sabah, said the group included 16 Kuwaitis. He said the other
activists came from Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Algeria,
Morocco, Mauritania, Yemen, Oman and Bahrain.
Turkey has led
criticism of the raid, accusing Israel of committing a "massacre", and
the UN security council demanded an impartial investigation. There were
reports in the Israeli media today that Israel had ordered the families
of its diplomats in Turkey to leave that country because of Turkish
anger at the raid.
Washington blocked an attempt at the UN security council for an
international inquiry yesterday, issuing a mild statement regretting the
loss of life. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, later called
the situation in Gaza "unsustainable".
"Israel's legitimate
security needs must be met, just as the Palestinians' legitimate needs
for sustained humanitarian assistance and regular access to
reconstruction materials must also be assured," she said.
Nick
Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said this morning that Israel's
blockade of Gaza was "an absolute humanitarian catastrophe" that was
"not in Israel's own long-term self-interest".
He told BBC Radio
4's Today programme this morning Israel had "every right" to protect its
people from terrorist threat, but said: "What I ask my Israeli friends
and Israeli politicians and officials I meet is: what's the strategy;
where do you go next; how are you going to secure in the long term � not
just day to day � the security which you rightly crave?"
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