Israel releases Gaza aid flotilla ships to Turkey
Turkish towing ships to arrive in Israel on Thursday and receive 3 vessels along with the personal equipment that was aboard them.
By Haaretz Service and News AgenciesIsrael has released three Turkish protest ships raided by Israel in May as they attempted to break a naval blckade on the Gaza Strip.
The Mavi Marmara, the scene of a blooday confrontation between pro-Palestinian activists and Israel commandos that left nine Turkish citizens dead, left the port of Haifa on Thursday afternoon.
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The Mavi Marmara leaves Haifa for Turkey, August 5, 2010 |
| Photo by: AP |
The bloodshed provoked an international outcry and this week, Israel agreed to an international investigation.
Israel's Defense Ministry says Turkish ships arrived to escort the vessels back.
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..the ship wasn't as valuable as Palestinian land, so they accepted its return. It took them two months to decide... maybe they were getting the ship valued or were stripping its vital organs.
Turkey received the ship but Furkan is not on the board.
full of Israeli electronics
At the end , Bibi will comply and bow to all Turkish terms. so I advise him to do it quickly, and not rely on the expired pressure game because turkey government was made by Turkish voters through election boxes, not falled down on the peoples head from US plane by parachutes like Arab dectatorships
For 500 years Turks and the Jews get alone fine helping eachother, understanding each other ,PM;s comes and goes people are people , I wish the best for both nations of my ancesstors
...maybe the Israelis are releasing this ship so that the IDF can storm it all over again... you know, keep on pluggin' away until they get it right....
They fly in the face of democracy. Before you get to confident about your own furure be sure you can oust the Islamists by democratic vote. How are the constitutional changes going?
Israel is holding three boats attacked and confiscated by Israel in international waters. When will the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, CHALLENGER and RACHEL CORRIE be returned to their owners?
Then send it back as a "Freedom Flotilla"
about time !
Israel should have sent the ship to the bottom of the ocean. Let Turkey recover them from there. The ship had pro-murder activist on board. They got what they deserved.
Somali and Israel should be punished for their piracy
that is good step ahead. but will israel return the murdered Turkish? of course never. So,israel has to pay for its crime.
I wonder what Israel gets in return? When is Israel going to return the boats they seized from Free Gaza Movement? In the mean time, the only conclusion I can draw is that Israel is basically never nice. They only "concede" under coercion or pressure. Alternatively, there is something else going on--like having Uribe on the UN Secretary General's committee that completely invalidates being "agreeable".
to return the ships? Maybe Israel was searching them inch by inch for the chance to fing weapons? Guess they did not find anything...except for the blood of the peace activists.
Mavi marmara has lots of cameras that record what had happened. Are these deleted ? What happened to the recordings?
Interesting.. All five posts written by those who know NOTHING about anything WORTH while. Perhaps they are are domiciled in the SAME cage.
Is it returned, but the color of the vessel has altered from Blue to Red ...... "Mavi" means blue, after the stain of blood, it is not anymore...
whom can or does believe a word from the zionist entity
and are helping their islamo-fashists brothers to destroy Israel.One thing is certain:turks will try to provoke Israel again and will get the same respond until they learn their lesson.
WELL DONE IDF!!
Is Israel also handing over all mobile phones and cameras with all their datas? It would be a surprise because these documents would proof the criminal acts of the IDF navy and the lies of the Israeli politicians. Anyhow it is not surprising that Israel will not allow the UNO the interogation of Israelis soldiers involved in order. They would probably contradict the official statement of Israels innocence.
you would claim they manipulated the videos. Your a joke, and Israel will always be guilty in your eyes, no matter what it does.
I hope(and i am certain) The Israeli Govt got all the information that may be tucked away in it.
In Turkey, we are glad to see Israel is making positive steps to normalise Turkey-Israel relations. Turkey had several conditions like accepting international probe (DONE), sending back the ships (DONE) and an official appology. I guess that one will come after the result of the probe. Keep it going Israel.
Can, it is in the best interests of both states to establish good relations again.
Israel, a tiny country in the midst of a lake of hatred called the Middle East, cannot and will not opt to lose Turkey; her second most important ally (or -ex?) in the World! Furthermore the Israeli defense contractors are pressing on the Bibi Administration so as to revitilize the billions of dollars worth military procurements. However having already lost the Turkish public Israel is not likely to ever rebound from her 'massacre of the ten unarmed Turkish activists' Good luck by your lonely self Israel!
what are they going to do with these ships if they didn't send them to the turkiye?its not a positive step or something else.they killed 9 turks and thats all matters for me.apology won't settle the relations,israel will pay the price for its piracy
We all see, whatever the politicians say, Israel is doing what is required by Turkey one by one. My opinion: Israel has no other option. Turkey is so vitally important for Israel. It is not the other way around. The next step will be "apology" in a way. Every one was saying Israel would make Turkey pay, but until now we haven't seen such.
I wish they would pressure them to end the occupation in the West Bank, go back to 1967 borders and stop blockading Gaza.
You'll get disappointed when the results would come out from the flotilla probe. It will be proven the truth the relation between terrorist İHH & Turkey goverment. Turkey threats Israel with breaking the diplomatic ties, but had not happened. If Israel was not so important for Turkey, your goverment would break the diplomatic ties with Israel long before, according to Turkey which was unacceptable. Turkey now is more vulnerable then Israel, at the edge of civil war. Seperatist Kurds wants an otonomy and and a new flag, like Israeli Arabs wants. Turkey would not need Israel, Turkey would not hesitate to break the ties with Israel and would try to send via İHH a new flotilla. Ask to your self why Turkey via İHH is not initiating to sent a new flotilla in the coming days? You are in a big trouble.
A. HAMIT, you are correct that Turkey has made several requests to Israel, but Turkish dignity ensures that Turkey would not be so vulgar to make a public insistence. After the unfortunate Danny Ayalon incident, Turkey allowed Israel to reflect and Israel volunteered an apology. Could I modestly suggest that this might be the same way to proceed. An international inquiry, the return of the ships, and a time for Israel to reflect? I think that given this courtesy, Israel will indeed apologise for the deaths of Turkish citizens and the wounding of others. Despite the events, it was never the intention of the Israeli military to machine gun peace activists, of any nationality. The IDF will have no problem apologising for the outcome of the incident, and compensation must be made. The Israeli people bear no ill-will towards the Turks, and vice-versa. Turkish hospitality is legendary, and the welcome given to the Jews expelled from Spain is well-known.
Israel did not appologize Israel did not send tugboats to bring them back to Turkey Israel did not release the ships right away What exactly did Israel do that Turkey demanded?
You armenian haters can come make statements to intice hatred but l hope you suffucate in your own hate which l see you are already there was 30 000 armenian man in Hitlers army collecting Jews go Google it ,
there is a LA based armenian computer hate group comes to this sites and makes dragonfly massages from both sides pretending to be Jewish or Turkish to make us hate each other, not every Turkish names or Jewish names are that, miomost of them are armenians whi
hope that the towing vessels will not also be confiscated...
Youre right..Scandalous that these boats, used by terrorist supporting idiots like you, werent either confiscated or destroyed..
TYou must always make trouble dont you esther. Unless teh towing ships are laoded with Turkish extremists there should not be a problem. I think Turkey learned its lesson
next you will be demanding that Israel return the scrap metal from missiles. What is scandulous is trying to run a blockade for political purposes. You clearly have not seen pictures from Gazan stores with plenty of food and items even before the land blockade was eased. Hamas needs to free Gaza, it is out of Israel's hands, as any nations security comes before the rights of others.
Teh proper use for these contrband vessels is to tow them out to the international limit and sink them to form an artificial reef. The owners of these vessels should be punished this way for allowing their ships to violate Israel's sovereignty.
It was scandalous that the vessels were sent to try and break the blockade. If I were running things i would of demanded something in return for returning those ships.
I hope the Mavi Marmara will (anytime soon) become a floating museum commemorating the long road to the Freedom of Gaza, and the memory of those unarmed aid workers who were gunned down in international waters by well trained naval commandos for the sake of 'deterrence' and to keep enforcing an illegal blockade.
Enough with your B.S. propaganda.. "Freedom of Gaza", "Unarmed aid workers"..Blah Blah..Gaza should be free of murderous terrorists, named Hamas, then maybe, just maybe, it will be truly free..Those friendly, peace-loving activists, attacked troops after being warned, not to try to run a naval blockade.. Maybe you should watch the videos of the "Welcoming Party" instead keeping your head buried up your ass..These boats should instead of being returned, should have been sunk...
That is a great idea!! It should be docked in Turkey, (for now) and once the Palestinians are free, Turkey should perhaps offer to have it transferred to a port in Gaza!!
No one believes that these hired terrorist thugs from the IHH were innocent or unarmed.
Listen to this Eurpean cry teh blues. Cry me a river get teh violins. No wonder Hitler had most of Europe in his hands. They play teh part of victim so well. Sycophasntic bootlickers and appeaxsers. None with teh spine to stand up and be counted. I guess European self esteem was truly beat out of them by the Nazi and still have not recovered. Victims!!!!
on reaching Turkey will be cleaned up, any damage repaired and then loaded with goods and equipment needed in Gaza and then lead another flotilla to Gaza.
.... have an explanation for the fact that the entire crew, the surviving IHH militants, and the "useful idiots" (naive passengers thinking they were on a humanitarian mission) all testified that the IHH militants exclusively took over the upper deck and locked all the useful idiots below? How would they have the evidence on their cameras?
while fools like you disbelieve factual evidence and prefer to believe in fantasy. But then of course, you don't want peace here, do you?
What happened to the pipes, knives and guns? Guess those things don't count.
supporting the cause of those holy and sanctified Lebanese freedom fighters of Hezbollah.
You said "unarmed." I think the English word you're looking for is "armed." The former means that there are no weapons, while the later means there are weapons.
"unarmed aid workers"?.....are these the aid workers that were video taped beating Israeli soldiers with bats, clubs, and pipes? are these the same aid workers that expressed their desire to become martyrs? please, your comment is so biased it makes me sick
Talk is cheap, if you love the hamas people, show your dignity and go to live with them. If you are not moslem you will be sorry.
Then there are the war crime missiles that continue from Gaza. Poor innocent Gazans. Richly indoctrinated useful idiots.