“Nobody got on the ship to become a martyr. We were not expecting such an outcome. … Israel dispatched half its navy to stop our flotilla,” Bülent Yıldırım, the head of the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), said in an interview broadcast on Saturday on Israel’s Channel 10 television.
On May 31, Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, which was part of an international aid flotilla trying to break Gaza’s blockade. Eight Turks and one American were killed by Israeli soldiers who later claimed that they were defending themselves. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fight on the Mavi Marmara was instigated by “dozens of thugs” who were looking for trouble. The activists on board the flotilla, however, said they were unarmed except for a few knives.
Yıldırım said the Israeli forces, arriving in submarines, zodiacs, warships and helicopters, had approached the ship without warning and fired guns at those on the ship. “Then we had to defend ourselves,” he said. He criticized Israel for attacking the ship in international waters and denied Israeli claims that those on board were armed with knives and clubs, saying those said to have been found on the ship were either brought from the kitchen or placed in the vessel after the raid by Israeli soldiers.
Yıldırım also said the İHH was receiving requests from all across the world to organize a new flotilla to break Gaza’s blockade but added that his organization was being cautious, putting plans for a new trip on hold in the hope of easing the current tensions. “We don’t want the crisis to escalate. We are a humanitarian organization that solely wants the embargo on Gaza to be lifted because this embargo is against international law,” he said.
But he added that new and bigger flotillas might soon be on their way to Gaza if the Israeli government does not respond to this goodwill gesture. “Bigger ships will be prepared if the Israeli government does not seize this opportunity. But not now,” he said.
