Fatima Mohammadi, aboard the Mavi Marmara, describes first hand her accounts of the initial approach of the IDF and later the use of such excessive violence that resulted in loss of life. She points out that there were already two casualties on the boat before the commandos boarded the boat. As the Mavi Marmara announced over and over that there were wounded people on board, the IDF ignored this and did not respond but continued to use force and fire on the crew members. The devastation and horror described is a full on military assault carried out on humanitarian workers.
“Israel is not just sending a clear message that we don’t want you back and we don’t want you to run another convoy, but this is an intensely strategic way of keeping anybody out of Gaza to see that over the past year and a half since the massacre, and especially since the siege began, that this society and the economy and the people and the livelihood of the people there are in such a poor state that Israel does not want anybody else to see it and they need to maintain that power and that control over this entire area to not allow for change to happen and this convoy challenged that.”
(Via Cultures of Resistance )
Israel seizes another Gaza-bound Aid Boat. Passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara continue to provide new accounts of the Israeli assault. Some are now claiming they discovered a list of people the Israeli military intended to assassinate during their raid on the ship. Israeli Navy kills four off coast of Gaza. Tristan Anderson returns home to California and the US embassy is demanding an investigation into the Israeli military’s shooting of another US citizen. The legendary alternative rock group the Pixies have cancelled scheduled concerts in Israel. These stories and more.
(Via Democracy Now!)