Unbelieveable!

Israeli commandos massacre 15.

Back in January 2009 Israel waged a short and bloody war against Gaza that killed 1300 and left the country in ruins. Since then Israel have laid siege to Gaza enforcing a blockade that has prevented all but a trickle of aid or trade entering or leaving the region. The Israelis claim that this is needed to stop the Islamic terrorists of Hamas re-arming. In reality the list of "terrorist materials" that Israel is preventing from entering Gaza include clothes, baby food, medicine, blankets and chocolate. Therefore the purpose of the blockade seems to be to starve the people of Gaza into submission so they will make way for more Israeli settlements.

In April 2010 a coalition of activists from Ireland, Greece, Turkey and the European Union was formed to challenge the blockade. Their plan was to sail a flotilla of ships to Gaza loaded with 10,000 tonnes of supplies along MP's and observers from around 15 nations. While they hoped that they would be able to dock and unload in Gaza in reality they expected to be stopped by the Israeli navy and detained before being deported.

Last night (31/5) while the flotilla was in international waters Israeli commandos boarded the largest of the ships by helicopter and to quote an eyewitness "opened fire as soon as they landed on the deck." They went on to kill at least 15 and injure dozens more.

In an early attempt to justify their actions the Israeli's are claiming that the ship was being used to smuggle weapons to Hamas and the commandos came under fire when they attempted to board. This is simply not credible. The ships are being operated by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) which is made up of activists from NATO countries. As they mainly operate in a part of the world that is infamous for Islamic terrorism they come under constant monitoring by the security services in their native countries in order to make sure they are totally free of links to terrorist groups. Also the ships were docked in Cyprus over the weekend where they were inspected by customs and security service officials before being allowed to set sail.

So if the Israeli's say the ships were being used to arm Hamas they are accusing the Cypriot and by extension the British government of arming Hamas.