'We fired because we were attacked', says Israeli captain in Gaza flotilla op

Incredible, the Commando captain was within legal rights to open fire on the pro-terrorist assailants but showed overwhelming compassion by holding his Men's fire. The IDF came face to face with pure hatred, stared it down and won!

Knowing and announcing in advance that Hamas operatives were involved and sending soldiers in to a dangerous situation w/o anticipating armed struggle, sending IDF in with paint-ball guns, not machine guns, is inexcusable. The terrorists should be prosecuted for the death of their fellows under manslaughter laws as well as for assualting the IDF with the intent to murder as this was a lawful police action and the violence was premeditated.. Prosecute and jail them, maybe trade them for Galid Shalit.

Good Jo. I just wonder if those on board understood what your object was. and it was peacefull.?????

Has anyone forgot, the Israeli Commandos with Machine guns etc.. took over a ship, do you think you will be receive with open arms ? If there Commandos are complaining about the reception they got they shouldn't have done it in the first place.. the victims are the people on the boat not the soldiers !

I wish for his full recovery

I thought the IDF was a better trained army... I was obviously wrong.... Whoever prepared this operation needs to go back to Military College asap.

That mean old ship jumped up to those ropes and just pulled you down eh and began attacking you? Next time you board a ship make sure that you are within your own borders. They probably thought you were a somali pirate. As one of your comrades admitted already "Next time we will use more force" At least he wass honest and admitted to using force.

"I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who were armed with knives and batons." TERRORISTS? I always fought that terrorists are those who attack civilians. Israelis should realize that the language of Israeli propaganda sounds really ridiculous outside of Israel.

..."I had to fight against quite a few TERRORISTS who were armed with knives and batons." ... Hey - you were an unvited gatecrasher - what do you expect?

If there was no bad intentions, why the operation took place at night? why commandos are used? why wasn't it simple boat interception like it is done in all advanced countries? something is not right their....

Creamy lemon pies being thrown?

Since the world does not understand the extreme effort and sacrifice that is necessary in order to maintain and defend Israel, we should not care what it thinks or says every time anymore. For those that want to destroy Israel or think that it's going to disappear, there are 300 nukes waiting in your way. Enough of this 3000 year old hatred against us, it will not work anymore.

This is new. I thought these guys lived for resistance? What is it? The special unit of UN negotiators? This is ridiculous. His commanders should go to jail. And he was well prepared for what? It does not seem like he was prepared for anything but empty ship.

If I were on a ship which was attacked by pirates, I would hope I would have the courage to try to defend myself as these people did.

The IDF raided the flotilla under the cover of darkness, in international waters with weapons drawn. So...who should be on the defensive?

After watching many video footages, we realized they acted like terroists and not humanists, and you protected yourselves rightfully. Any soldier of any country would have done that. In the future clearer, colorful video will reveal the truth more vividly, that the whole world may learn the truth.

So the Captain is a primo Whynner WHO'S ATTAKING WHOM BOZO ? It's you who's storming the place and expect to get what ? ....FLOWERS ??? You're a failure bud

im sure that people were not able to fight israel soldiers....that is so untrue....

Ships were in international waters said to be headed for Gaza coast why didn't IDF forces wait until they entered Israel territory before boarding ships? Because it would be to late to put a stop to the netanyahu/Obama Washington meeting scheduled for the next day. If Israel was so concerned about the ships smuggling weapons to Hamas and so convinced that weapons where on board the ships that an immediate inspection was necessary...why did IDF board with paint guns. Seems to me if these ships posed such a real threat that IDF would come prepared with full armor. This skunk stinks to high heaven if you ask me !

The IDF illegally attacked a humanitarian convoy in international waters with massive force. The victims on board the attacked vessels tried to defend themselves from the oncoming mob of uniformed pirates. Who is thus to blame? The attackers or the victims of the attack?

5. Our attack party was vastly outnumbered, and was attacked by the passengers. We had to shoot in self-defense. 4. We had intelligence of a big fat terrorist on the ship who wouldn't fit into one of the Gaza tunnels from Egypt. He had to be eliminated. 3. Turkey didn't learn to behave after the "low chair" incident. We had to teach them a stronger lesson. 2. Now Iran will get scared of us. Perhaps they will stop their nuke program. 1. We wanted Egypt to open the Rafah crossing and take over responsibility for Gaza from us. It worked!

Captain R , I have a question based on your story....... they had knife, when they were in their OWN ship you had gun, when you raided to THEIR ship they were violent guys. but who you are?!!!

I used to admire the Israel way to denfend there freedom. But when people are attaced on international water I must reconsider if I still can be an Israel friend. Björn Sundin Uppsala Sweden

Good story! Good enough for my son to sleep with! What a brave "unknown" captain! Just a piece of advise for you: "From now on, don't underestimate human minds"!

I was on the ship...........Israeli Captain is not saying the truth.

Israel should demand an investigation from EU (UN is hopelessly biased towards Arabic interest) into the Turkish-Islamist group that organizes the "humanitarian" ship, such as their alliances and links. I suspect the Turkish Islamist Govt, with Iran, have a hand in this - to demonize Israel globally. Further, Israel should fight in the media such as the biased CNN, why so-called "peace activists" are carrying weapons including bombs - and they must be indicted for injuring the Israeli Army! We can see clearly - the intentional provocation, in order to demonize Israel, globally, by Islamists and Islamic terrorists!

WHAT A SHAM... PEACE ADVOCATES ACTING PIRATES, LIKE WILD IMMATURE CHILDREN THAT WANT IT THEIR WAY OR NOTHING. LOGIC SAYS... YOU WANT TO BRING AID TO GAZA? GO THROUGH ASHDOD. BRAIN WASHED, SO CALLED PEACE ACTIVISTS, FIND THE MOST PROVOCATIVE WAY TO GET HELP TO GAZA, WHICH AFTER THIS STUNT, WILL PROBABLY NOT GET TO GAZA AT ALL... OR ANYTIME SOON. THE WORLD IS ON CRAZY PILLS. ANYTHING TO DISTORT REALITY. IF ARAFAT SAID YES TO PEACE BACK IN 2000, WE WOULD NOT BE HERE. INSTEAD ARAFAT SAID NO, HE THEN WENT BACK HOME AND STARTED A BLOODY INTIFADA. WHICH ISRAEL HAD TO DEFEND ITSELF EVERYDAY. BEFORE THE INTIFADA, THERE WAS NO DIVIDING WALL, ARABS WERE WORKING IN ISRAEL, BLOCKADES WERE MINIMAL AND GAZA WAS RELATIVELY QUIET. AFTER THE INTIFADA, UNTIL ISRAEL MANAGED TO BUILD A WALL, WE HAD COWARDLY, BRAIN WASHED TERRORISTS ENTERING ISRAEL EVERY DAY... SUICIDE BOMBINGS. LET US NOT FORGET... THE MENTALLY DISABLED 12 YEAR OLD BOY THAT WAS SENT BY HAMAS TO BLOW HIMSELF UP AT AN ISRAELI CHECKPOINT. THE BOY GOT THERE, AND DIDN'T WANT TO DIE. IT SHOWS HOW UNBELIEVABLY INHUMAN, HEARTLESS AND BARBARIC HAMAS IS... NOT ISRAEL. WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE, WHERE IS THE LOGIC? IT IS JUST BLIND HATRED AND RESENTMENT TOWARD JEWS AND ISRAEL. ARIEL SHARON REALIZED THAT IT WAS TIME FOR PEACE.... THAT AFTER YEARS OF BLOODSHED, IT WAS TIME TO TAKE A POSITIVE STEP TOWARDS PEACE. HE STARTED BY LEADING THE WAY TO ENDING THE OCCUPATION IN GAZA... AND IT WAS UNDER ENORMOUS PRESSURE FROM WITHIN ISRAEL, THE GOV'T, THE PEOPLE AND THE SETTLERS... BOTTOM LINE: WE LEFT GAZA. HAMAS STOLE THE GAZA STRIP FROM THE PALESTINIANS... THEY STARTED OFF BY DESTROYING EVERYTHING. THEN BUILT ROCKETS AND STARTED LAUNCHING THEM INTO ISRAELI TOWNS - EVERY SINGLE DAY. DOZENS OF ROCKETS... EVERYDAY. THAT PUSHED ISRAEL IN TO RESPONDING... WHICH MADE THEIR MASTERFUL CUNNING PLOY TO GAIN WORLD SYMPATHY, LOOK GOOD, WHILE ISRAEL LOOKS BAD. THEN CAST LEAD HAPPENED, OUT OF NECESSITY AND DEFENSE. RIGHT OR WRONG, IT WAS NECESSARY. IT'S LIKE MEXICAN TERRORIST GROUP LAUNCHING DOZENS OF ROCKETS INTO ARIZONA TOWNS, EVERY DAY. I DON'T THINK AMERICA WOULD SIT BACK AND TAKE IT. I WONDER WHAT RESPONSE AMERICA WOULD TAKE, IF EVEN 1 ROCKET HITS AMERICAN LAND. PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD ARE BEING CONNED... GIVE SYMPATHY TO A PROBLEM THAT SHOULD NOT EVEN BE HERE. BRING HUMANITARIAN AID IN THROUGH THE PROPER CHANNELS, UNDER YOUR WATCH AND YOUR INSPECTION. BOTTOM LINE, THIS DOESN'T HELP ANYONE... ESPECIALLY THE GAZAN'S THAT THE ACTIVISTS SAY NEED THE HELP AND SUPPLIES SO DESPERATELY. YOU CANT JUST FLOAT INTO MIAMI SAYING YOU WANT TO BRING HUMANITARIAN AID TO CUBAN REFUGEES... CRAZY PILLS I TELL YOU... CRAZY PILLS.

the IDF was out maneuvered here by the activists. Their cause was advanced. Israel faces weeks of criticism. Is there another way Israel could be doing this,i.e., seeking a stable Middle East where both Palestinians & Israelis homeland?

So Sad!

These guys are my heroes, like some idealized characters from the Hollywood movies. It's clear that they would manage to take over the boat if there were a couple of people just with fists - and this is already amazing. Unfortunately, it was a boat stuffed with hundreds of de facto pro-Hamas soldiers and latent terrorists painted as "peace activists" and the guns were inevitable.

..who had the great idea of sliding down a rope right into a big group of people? Who did decide to get the people enraged, before boarding the ship, by injuring some people with stun greandes and teargas canisters dropped from the helicopter? Wasn't that actually the injured captain himself? Then, if the captain fired only once, WHO did kill all those people and injure so many others? What happend to that alleged knife, wasn't that actually just a broken metal stick with a sharp end? And who insisted on conducting an act of piracy machismo in international waters, during the night, instead of using the proven technics that had been successful in blocking the previous flotillas? This report doesn't tell the whole story. Not even remotely.

Well, if i was in the Israeli side, I would simply, again simply (listen), disable the ship from the propellers under the water (using steel net) then pull the ship to Asdud port, that could be done with no injury no deaths which is a desaster now. is that simple who ever was in charge. now if the activists were much smarters, the should be prepared with water hoses is pacefull and active ( Greenpace have better experince). in general, I think what is done is unacceptable.

Could you please explain this; WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON THAT SHIP ???? Those were civilian and wanted to help poor Palestinian people, that's all. You attacked them on the international waters and they were just saving their lives. Of course this is not yours, your governments who consisting of 'complete fools' ( from Ari Shavit's article on this site ) fault..!

We have to use the event for a favorable PR: our soldiers were not going to fight-just to prevent, the gang of the "activists" was planning to atack from the very beginning.

Could someone inform the Captain that he was in Int. waters and is now considered a pirate? There's nothing wrong defending your ship against intruders. The claim that Israel had some right to board the boat it is not correct.

Maybe victims of your pirate attack responded harshly and it's not your confabulation. But they had the right to defend themselves against Israeli army. Against you.

Another PR opportunity lost. Remember this story?: An old crippled man saves a little girl from a horrible pit bull dog attack. As the old man lies in the street dying from the bites, the Media, seeing he is wearing a skull cap headlines in the paper - JEW KILLS DOG. Why are we not in front of the UN filing endless complaints of human rights violations in GAZA? Gosh could we start with pictures of burned out children’s summer camps, bullets left on tables with warnings, executions without appeal, ad nauseum. Just who is running our PR - Abbas? Maybe our leaders are just too smart for Israel’s own good! William

this AM, you walked into an ambush created by the IHH. It was a setup. that you and the your mates survived is the best news. the world will not remember that this is a war zone and that Israel offered an alternative. some of us will never forget.

It's seems there is a pattern. When Rachel Corrie died, it was an accident. In the Operation Cast Lead, and 13 Israeli died versus 1417 Palestinians, it was also about defend yourselves. Now you have a couple of wounded, and these people have 19 dead and dozens of wonded. Again it was a necessary evil.... The world is not so stupid.

It is obvious to anyone who has followed this story over the weeks and has watched the video footage that this officer speaks the truth. This was a trap that really couldn't be avoided.

and they were ambushed at night by the idf

The 1st choice was to lift the Gaza siege that keeps Hamas in power The 2nd choice was to let the aid flotila pass The 3rd choice was not to enter the ships. The 4th choice was to retreat upon resistance How many more choices do fools need?

Yep. Spin us another one please.

You were attacked because you attack unarmed people in internation waters.Thanks to your government stupid actions,you gave HAMas legimacy

You rappel onto an unarmed civilian aid ship in the middle of the night, not to mention that the ship was in international waters, and you cry that the passengers and crew used force to defend themselves? And you expect sympathy for your actions because you were injured? You are the 'victim'? Sorry, my sympathy is reserved for the civilians killed and injured as a result of your illegal and unconscionable actions.

Super trained and fully armed Israel Commandos start firing hysterically, for having being attacked with a knife and a couple of plastic chairs! Result: Flotilla activists 10 - Israel soldiers 0

In a normal country, when an enemy threatens a soldier, then the soldier responds using overwhelming force, often lethal, in order to eliminate the threat. Even when an enemy combatant surrounds himself with women and children hostages, which is characteristic of Islamic "fighters", the soldier is obligated to eliminate the threat. It was only by the Grace of God that no Jewish soldiers were murdered in this incident. They foolishly prided themselves as they shouted to their comrades to avoid shooting into the lynch mob. Their foolish commanders sent them into the battle with paint ball rifles! Hamas and Hizbollah systematically fire missiles at Israeli civilian population centers from within their own civilian population centers. These same foolish soldiers and their government feel it is immoral to take out the missile launchers. Rather according to their skewed moral calculus, it is preferable that the missiles should murder innocent Jewish civilians. Rashi, the famous medieval Torah commentator, said that one who shows mercy to the cruel will be cruel to the innocent. Thus the same moral soldiers and their moral government have no qualms about destroying the homes of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria for the sake of a fake peace that has left thousands of Jews murdered, maimed, widowed and orphaned.

Israel had no right to attack a convoy of aid ships in international water.. How dare Israel shoot innocent people because they were not prepared..

How did the armed Israeli naval commandos expect to be received - with flowers?

i dont think there were any terrorist on that boat.

and marlin spikes (what else would you use to repel boarders) because they tossed grenades and fired silenced assault weapons at us... it was dark and we couldn't tell if they were pirates or friendly Israelis trying to rescue us from delusional activism.

The facts will show that Turkey could have stopped the flotilla but did not. When you sail into a military blockaded area where two countries are at armed conflict, what the heck do you expect????? And Israel had already given them a peaceful option to unload at Ashdod for transport by regular means into Gaza.

I"m touched. Haaretz printed Israel's side of the story.

Why not board the ship with a huge boarding party from an Israeli ship instead of using a rope from a helicopter? It seems the strategy to take this ship over was flawed, without being there it is impossible to know but the loss of life is a good indicator. If I was a commander I would never drop my troops one by one into the lions mouth.....

Why did Tsahal not use weapons like taser, to paralize the activists who attack them ?

The Captain gives himself away, right here: "I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who were armed with knives and batons." The terrorists? Time will tell how effective Israel's side of the story will hold up when the detained give their details.

5 of the 6 boats made no resistance or none that is noted, the last boat did. It would be interesting to examine who was on the last boat, which peoples and their connections as we might find something interesting and not glatt kosher. Furthermore, the last two boats must be inspected. why? because if one was interested in sending Arms to Gaza storing them in the last two boats after the confrontation would be a great move, israel's hands are kind of tied in this political mess and how it will react to the last two boats is quite undecided. Since the pressure is on them not to act and as the activists say, "do the right thing" and allow unchecked goods into a terrorist enclave, begs the question of doing the right thing for whom, especially when the offered compromise to have the goods inspected unloaded and allowed goods sent to via land thru Ashdod port is refused. A proper inquiry is certainly required and perhaps just maybe if Israel is cleared, the world will apologize with the same vigour to save Israel's name, as it did to besmirch it, but I won't hold my breath on the last one.

I wish him and his comrades a swift recovery.

that is right

The ocean swells must have driven them mad in order for them to so quickly abandon the peaceful methods of Martin Luther King.

The first people to be released from the Mavi Marmara have stated that Israel forces fired stun guns, smoke bombs and tear gas at the ship before attempting to board it.:The truth is starting to come out, regardless of these blatant Israeli media propoganda attempts

What I don't get is armed military members entering a civillian area this is attacking them) and expecting nothing to happen. Isn't military climbing down to the board with ropes attacking civillians?! What is this whole nonsense! Attacked us with slingshots! not even embarrassed to say it!

Definitely the behavior of terrorists. The commandos did right in opening fire. I support Israel!

The world will blame us for everything until they manage one way or another to completely wipe us off. We will not let them this time. Good luck to you and i wish you the best. The rest of the world can go and you know what... i just dont care about what they think any more.

Let’s take a somewhat parallel situation. Suppose Russia and Cuba were allies and both were openly committed to and actively seeking to destroy the USA. Suppose also that Cuba is not in a position to manufacture sophisticated weapons that could realistically endanger the USA. But Cuba is actively trying to acquire these weapons to use against the USA. And suppose Russia has in the past attempted to send weapons, for example nuclear missiles, to Cuba. Then Russia sends some ships toward Cuba. What would the US do in that situation? Hint: (We already know the answer).