The Israeli assault on the Mavi Marmara. Enlightening military testimonies

(BRUSSELS2) Little by little as the various militants of the flotilla for Gaza return, the testimonies arrive and if not the truth, the different points of view become clearer. It seems that fighting did indeed take place on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish "flagship" of the flotilla (1). But a totally unequal battle. On one side, pistols loaded with 9mm bullets fired sometimes at point-blank range, sometimes in the back; on the other side, penknives and kitchen knives and iron bars. And, so far the Israeli army has not been able to find any other weapons on board...

NB: the latest report still reports 9 dead (Turks, one of whom has American nationality) and a good thirty wounded, 2 of whom are between life and death.

The testimony of an Irish activist, former US marine: victims of ill-treatment

An interesting testimony has just been published in Hurriyet. Ken O'Keefe an Irish citizen, former US Navy in the Gulf War, who recounts the fight against the Israeli military on the Mavi Marmara bridge, as well as the mistreatment suffered afterwards. He was thus beaten twice, during his detention before his deportation to Ankara.

He says he fought but "to defend our lives and freedom", but essentially to disarm the Israeli soldiers who had just arrived by helicopter and were setting foot on the upper deck. He also admits having stolen from the commandos the 9 mm pistol he was carrying. But not to use it. " I took the gun voluntarily, and I disarmed it. We have not used these weapons against Israeli commandos. (...) We fought to defend our lives ". In a staircase, he neutralizes - with the help of other militants - three men from the commandos. " They lowered their weapons, in despair. (...) I saw the fear in their eyes. I looked into the eyes of these three children like an angry father. They thought we were going to kill them. We released them. They were amazed (1).

• 
  Ken O'Keefe is a character. Born in 1969, in California, ex-marine and veteran of Iraq in 1991, he renounced American citizenship in 2001 and has an Irish passport (from his grandmother), Hawaii and Palestine. On his site, he explains that he then suffered, like several hundred soldiers, from "Gulf syndrome" having been forced to undergo injections and medication and having been exposed to depleted uranium in Kuwait. In Hawaii, he creates a "Deep Ecology" company which intends to safeguard maritime fauna.

• His interest in Gaza was not born yesterday. He is married to a Palestinian, Fadiwa Dajani, born and living in Britain after his father was expelled from Palestine in 1948. During the siege of 2008, captain of the ship "Free gaza", he managed to break through the Israeli checkpoints with 2 boats which embarked with 46 other people including Laureen Booth, journalist and human rights activist, who is also the sister-in-law of Tony Blair (the former Prime Minister). Laureen with whom he founded a social interest company, Aloha Palestine, with the ambition of establishing a maritime ferry service between Cyprus and Palestine.

•  (Photo credit : website by Ken O'Keefe - taken in 1991 at the time of the Gulf War)

Autopsy by Turkish doctors reveals heavy gunfire

One can thus read in the British daily The Guardian an extract from the autopsy carried out by Turkish doctors on the bodies of
militants repatriated to Türkiye. It is enlightening... Out of the nine bodies, no less than 30 bullets were found. These do not come from stray bullets or ricochet shots, specifies the doctor, vice-director of the Turkish Institute of Forensic Medicine. They are intact and therefore testify to a direct shot.
The intention to kill seems obvious. Five of the activists ended up with a bullet in the head. One of the militants (the one who has dual Turkish and American nationality) was killed at close range (at 45 cms). Several of them were also shot in the back. Lire: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range.

Comment: It seems that the commandos gave in to panic and fired into the crowd. Note that if the commandos
Marines are normally trained, trained and equipped to deal with assault and armed action situations, they are not trained and armed to perform crowd keeping. This is not the first time that soldiers, employed in this type of action, slip ... A version that seems confirmed by the testimony of an Israeli soldier who participated in the assault.

The testimony of an Israeli soldier who took part in the assault: panic shooting

"We had no other choice"thus expressed Staff Sergeant S., one of the Marines who led the assault on the Mavi Marmara, questioned by our colleague from the jerusalem post based on the Shayetet (2) in northern Israel.

Taken down by the helicopter by the Black Hawk helicopter on the deck, he does not expect to find what he calls a "pitched battle" and having to face "murderous mercenaries". The commando commando is decapitated. As soon as we arrived, he explains, we were "immediately attacked". He thus sees next to him "three of his commanders injured, one by a shot in the stomach, the other by a shot in the knee, the third appeared unconscious, his skull fractured by an iron barHe takes command, pushes the wounded against a wall on the upper deck, orders his men to create a safety perimeter around it and begin treating the wounded, then forms a second perimeter and pulls out his 9mm Glock pistol.

Facing "a dozen mercenaries" and "convinced that his lives were in danger, he and his comrades opened fire". S. alone takes down 6 men. " There was no doubt that they were terrorists — he explains —. I could see the murderous rage in their eyes. And they wanted to kill us ". A version that agrees in all respects with the official version. A senior Shayetet officer, Lieutenant-Colonel T., also attends the interview with the journalist from the Jerusalem Post, and completes his man's version if necessary.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet publishes several series of photos, in particular on the wounded israeli soldiers et wounded and dead activists taken aboard the Mavi Marmara.

(2) To know more about these commandos see the site of my friend Merchet:  Top secret: Shayetet 13, Israel's Navy Commandos.