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Israel to return impounded Gaza aid ships to Turkey
“This was one of the steps that Israel was supposed to take. We hope the others will also be fulfilled,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, speaking to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam. He said he expected technical preparations for the return of ships to be completed within the next few days. The ships would be brought back to Turkey with towboats to be sent to Israel, Davutoğlu said. The towboats are currently docked at Turkey’s Mersin Port.
Israeli officials said the Turkish Embassy was handling discussions on how to retrieve the ships from Haifa and Ashdod ports.
Talks to return the Mavi Marmara and two other Turkish-owned ships from the flotilla had been held up by Israel’s demand that the owners not sail them against the blockade, which it says will help prevent arms smuggling to Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers. “A decision was made yesterday to allow the ships to leave without further conditions. Turkey has been informed. They will leave soon,” an Israeli official said.
Israel has eased overland trade to Gaza, many of whose 1.5 million Palestinian residents are aid-dependent. Powers like the United Nations and European Union have called for greater access but also spoke out against further attempts to break the blockade.
Israel admitted errors in planning the high seas seizure of the Mavi Marmara yet justified the lethal force of its marines, saying they came under club, knife and gun attacks after abseiling in from helicopters. Activists dispute that account.
Former Israeli Gen. Giora Eiland, who headed an internal military investigation of the incident, said bloodshed could have been reduced had the navy first cleared the Mavi Marmara’s decks with high-pressure hoses or water dropped from the air. “If used against the stern, then when the dinghies arrive this would create better conditions for soldiers to board the ship,” Eiland told Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily on Friday.
Though it has resisted Turkish demands for a wider international probe, Israel has made fence-mending overtures. On Tuesday, it lifted an advisory against Israelis visiting Turkey, noting there were fewer demonstrations that might have endangered them.
Asked why Israel no longer sought formal Turkish assurances that the ships would not be used for future Gaza aid missions, an Israeli official cited Ankara’s rejection of the demand.
There were also legal challenges in negotiating such a deal with the İHH, the Turkish charity that chartered the Mavi Marmara and which Israel has designated a terrorist organization, the official said.
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