Jerusalem: Israel on Sunday began deporting
all 19 people onboard the Rachel Corrie aid ship intercepted
by its Navy while trying to breach its blockade of the Gaza
Strip, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu defended the
Monday`s botched raid on a flotilla that killed nine people.
The aid ship, named after a US activist killed in 2003
as she tried to prevent an Israeli bulldozer from razing a
Palestinian home, was intercepted by the Israeli Navy
yesterday.
Six Malaysians and a Cuban were deported to Jordan,
while 11 others will be deported from the country within the
next 24 hours.
"They (the activists and crew) will be all deported
from Israel within the next 24 hours. The Malaysian nationals
have been transferred to Jordan from where they will go back
to their country while the rest will be flying from the Ben-
Gurion International Airport," Israel Police Spokesman
Micky Resonfeld told PTI here.
Out of the 19 people onboard the ship, 11 are
pro-Palestinian activists and the rest crew members.
The remaining 11 activists -- five Irish nationals,
including Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire and six
Filipinos were due to be deported.
Government sources said Israeli government will pay
for the deportation of activists and crew members apprehended
on the aid ship.
The 19 people -- all citizens of Ireland, Britain,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Cuba -- were sent to an
Immigration Authority Facility in Holon city after the Israel
Navy intercepted the ship yesterday.
The seizure came just days after Israeli Naval
commandos in a predawn raid stormed a civilian flotilla
carrying humanitarian aid to blockaded Gaza Strip, killing
nine people.
Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting said the
violence aboard the Gaza bound aid ship last Monday was
"intentional".
He said the Israeli troops came under attack by a
group of people, separate from the peace activists, who had
boarded the ship "in a way that allowed them to avoid a
security check".
"According to the information we now hold, the group
which attacked the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers
boarded the ship separately, in a different city and underwent
completely different security checks," he told the Cabinet
meeting.
The Israeli premier, who is under pressure for an
independent inquiry in the incident that left nine people
dead, argued that "their clear intention was to violently hurt
the IDF`s soldiers".
Although Netanyahu did not specifically mention
al Qaeda, as other Israeli officials have done in recent days,
but he did direct his accusations at radical Islamic
organisations.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that UN chief
Ban Ki-moon is moving ahead with plans for an international
commission to investigate the deadly Monday raid.
Ban wants former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey
Palmer, a maritime law expert, to head the panel, which would
include Israeli, Turkish and US representatives, it quoted an
unnamed Foreign Ministry official as saying.
The international community was closely following the
developments and Israeli response after the deadly incident
last Monday when the flotilla was stormed.
Despite international outcry, Israel had reiterated
its resolve to stop the Rachel Corrie ship from reaching Gaza.
The 11 activists had earlier said that they will not
resort to violence if the Israeli army intercepts the ship but
would try to reach Gaza if left unhindered.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the country`s
military and political leadership are at loggerheads blaming
each other for the bungled operation against the Gaza aid
flotilla.
Insufficient intelligence available for the operation,
which was carried out by elite Naval commandos, also raised
eyebrows on Israel`s spy agency Mossad`s role for failing to
properly judge the situation.
Though Israel has been putting up a brave front
outwardly justifying its raid on the ship on the grounds of
preserving its autonomy, but political leadership and military
suspects the other of trying to blame it for the fiasco and
consequent crisis, daily `Ha`aretz` reported on Sunday.
The politicos are pointing finger on the operation`s
inadequate planning in the Navy and faulty intelligence due to
which the commandos lacked a proper understanding of the kind
of confrontation awaiting them.
The General Staff, however, has reportedly said
that it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence
Minister Ehud Barak who were complacent about the flotilla and
assessed that the raid would not raise such world reactions.
PTI
