Israel Navy: 3 commandos nearly taken hostage in Gaza flotilla raid
According to preliminary navy investigation, some passengers on the Mavi Marmara boat dragged three unconscious commandos into one of the passenger halls below deck.
By Amos Harel Tags: Israel news Gaza flotilla IDFDuring Israel's takeover of a Turkish ship in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla this week, some passengers tried to take captive three commandos who lost consciousness as a result of the activists' blows, according to early findings of a navy investigation. The three were dragged into one of the passenger halls below deck and were held there for several minutes.
After dozens of other commandos began searching the ship, the Mavi Marmara, the three soldiers regained consciousness and managed to join their comrades.
Conversations with senior navy officers in the chain of command during the operation present a different view of the events on Monday. In Israel, the raid has been perceived as a failure, while abroad it has been derided as piracy or worse.
The navy rejects the claims that it was poorly prepared. Officials have been commending the commandos' performance in a situation in which they were confronted by dozens of activists who attacked them as they rappelled from helicopters. "They were terrorists - hired killers who came to murder soldiers, not to assist the residents of the Gaza Strip," said a navy officer.
The operation on the Mavi Marmara began at about 4:30 A.M. on Monday. Because of the presence of hard-core activists including members of the IHH, the Turkish group organizing the aid convoy, most attention went to that ship. Navy chief Eliezer Merom and the head of the naval commandos, Lt. Col. A., were on vessels next to the ship. Lt. Col. A. climbed on the Mavi Marmara during the takeover.
As seen on a video documenting the takeover, the first four commandos to rappel onto the deck were attacked by activists with bars, axes and knives. The fourth commando, K., saw his team leader on the deck, with a Turkish activist holding the pistol he had grabbed from him and pointing it to his head. K. jumped from the rope and managed to shoot the activist holding the gun. This happened 20 seconds after the first soldier landed on the deck.
The commanders of the first unit were hit by the mob as they landed. One of the soldiers managed to fix another rope, after there were problems with the original one, for 10 more soldiers to land. The commandos cared for the wounded and took over part of the upper deck of the ship.
At this stage, six minutes into the operation, another force landed from a second helicopter, led by a major. At that point they realized that three commandos were missing and they began looking for them. A short while later the naval commando chief landed along with dozens more soldiers, some of whom climbed from boats. Others landed from a third helicopter.
The search involved limited shooting, in the bridge and on the lower deck, until the three men were recovered. The head of the naval commandos gave orders by radio to use live fire, two minutes after the incident had begun.
Shots had been fired earlier, but Lt. Col. A. later explained that in his orders he wanted to make sure that the troops realized that "the mood of the incident had changed."
The soldiers reported that the activists had fired on them during the confrontation and that at least two commandos suffered gunshot wounds. After the incident, 9mm bullet casings were found - a kind not used by the naval commandos.
The Israel Defense Forces says that during the operation a number of pistols and an M-4 rifle were taken from soldiers, but they believe that the Turkish activists had other weapons. The captain of the ship told the naval commando chief that the guns were thrown overboard before the ship was completely taken over.
The wounded activists were airlifted to Israel for treatment, some seriously hurt whose lives were saved by the evacuation.
The IDF did not question the activists extensively because of the decision to release them. In conversations after the takeover, activists said they were surprised by the use of helicopters, even though the navy had used this method before. However, nothing else appears to have surprised them because international law requires sufficient warnings before ships are boarded.
Post-operation assessments have the number of hard-core activists involved in the fighting at between 60 and 100. It appears that they were well trained and experienced, especially in view of the arsenal found and code books used to pass on orders from group leaders. Among the rioters, in addition to Turks, were Yemenis, Afghans and one person from Eritrea. All were apparently experienced in hand-to-hand fighting. Some of them did not retreat when shots were fired.
The operation involved a month of training, with dummy takeovers of a ship at sea with 50 soldiers performing the role of activists. The navy admits that it trained mostly for "a Bil'in type of opposition, but there was no feeling that this was going to be a walk in the park." He was referring to a village at the separation fence where demonstrations take place.
The navy says it needs to look into whether the psychological preparations of the force were sufficient, and whether it had emphasized an easier scenario that did not take place.
The navy says it went over "incidents and responses" in preparation; these included opening fire at charging activists with melee weapons. In case of a threat to their lives, the commandos were ordered to shoot to kill even as they were on their way onto the deck.
"The main gap between preparations and intelligence was that we did not know we would face dozens of rioters," a senior officer involved in the operation said. "This was not a disturbance that went awry. It was a planned ambush."
Another officer added that "I still wake up at 3 A.M. and wonder how the hell we did not know more."
Another officer said said that "we became a little spoiled, as a society, expecting perfect performances."
According to a senior officer, "Under the circumstances, and I do not like the result, I think we did the best we could. We took care of five ships without injuries. On the sixth ship, we faced a harsh attack and killed nine saboteurs.
"No real peace activist was injured. No soldier was killed, even though it came pretty close. In the end the ships are docked at Ashdod. It was very complicated and the result is near perfect."
 |
Naval commandos who participated in this weeks raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara. |
| Photo by: IDF Spokesman's Office |
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well, according to this article, 20 seconds after the first soldier's landing on ship shots fired ("...The fourth commando, K., saw his team leader on the deck, with a Turkish activist holding the pistol he had grabbed from him and pointing it to his head."). Maybe IDF should release the entire video footage -not just selected 20 to 30 secs- to let us see how the incident developed and how 9 activists have been shot to killed and dozens injured by live fire. If IDF has confident that how they conducted was right then they should release the video.
It seems to be a fact that activists dragged injured soldiers below deck. isnt it possible that its was done to save their lifes? on this ship was much chaos. unfortunately there was some pre planed violence by a minority of the passengers of the vessels.
An Aljazeera reporter said that he hard an organizer on the ship say it happened, but this was after Israel fired weaponry on the ships, killed people before even boarding and shot people from above, and the Turks who are not cowards, but were being foolish took iron bars from the ship and attacked in an angry way the Israelis. Israelis would have done the same if fired upon, I suspect. Then, three commandos were taken below, and the organizers said to release them as that would bring more trouble. So, they were released.
It was a great miracle no IDF troops were killed. The commandos were not prepared for a combat and this is not acceptable.When you go out on a mission like that,you have to be preepared for every contingency
... to be compliant and conciliatory during a takover by the IDF... obviously we were prepared for combat... now it seems disingenuous to faulti them with resistance...
"It was very complicated and the result is near perfect." What kind of a statement is that about such a tragedy?
As an American, I am ashamed that this current administration has no moral compass at all. Thank Gd for the IDF! This could have been a hoeific hostage situation. Erdogan is responsible for this calamity.
That about sums it up.
The ironic thing is that while all of the Muslims, Anti-Semites and hate-mongers out there are dancing in the streets, it appears the US and Obama are now getting closer to Israel and warming relations. This isn't exactly what you guys want. The people in the US see the world (and the Obama administration) and the insanity that is happening. Obama is getting so much pressure from within the US that he has no choice because Israel isn't going anywhere and you just can't force peace. Obama is gone is 2 1/2 years and then watch what comes to the White House. It ain't gonna be a lib and the rest of the world is going to be hating the new leaders because they are going to be so Pro- Israel you will be burning US flags in the streets.
Well victor if you have ever served in the armed forces rather than being an armed chair general. you would know that no plan ever survives first ciontact once the rounds start to fly. After that first contact it is adapt implement and overc ome. You Victor are a cynic. A cynic is someone who watches a battle from a ridgeline and when its over comes down and shoots the survivors
as brutal aggressors.Of course he protects his leftist colleagues who participated in the lynch. Elite units don't take over a ship with paintball guns,stupid.
its pretty ironic that you used Sarid to quote, an individual that helped cause terrible harm to the state that we are still paying for everyday
Israel looks more pathetic with each new excuse. No one is buying any of its multiple excuses. It should bear its responsibility and say it loud and clear. "We are sorry, we f@%ked up".
But the point is, why should Israel give any excuse at all? Does Turkey apologize for occupying Northern Cyprus? Do they apologize for occupying Kurdistan and having killed 60,000 so far? Did they apologize about the slaughtering of 1,5 million Armenians? Do Arabs apologize for their terror against "unbelievers" and even themselves? Does the US, the UK + 40 coalition forces apologize for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
So your point is what, they are wrong so Israel is right? Confusing sir and illogical.
why is the excuse ALWAYS a comparison. ALWAYS. DO you not exist? Then compare your actions to your own standards
Might makes right... You should read The Prince, written by Machiavelli.
the lies keep getting bigger and farther out there.
the people who got killed have names and faces: http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/06/putting-names-to-faces.html somehow I do not think the people killed were the ones seen fighting in those videos there is video footage of everything - and quite a lot got out -have a look in youtube. I suppose that video footage was what the fight to prevent the Israeli soldiers from entering the boat was really about - and the urgency to shut everything down on the Israeli side, too. one side was fighting with steel taken from the railings and deck chairs - the other side had guns, one side got bruised, on the other side people got killed. A body having four bullets in the head and one in the breast (that is the US citizen) does sound like somebody got carried away. basically, I suppose, the Israeli side started shooting, because they could not enter the ferry otherwise, and because a few soldiers had been overpowered sliding down that stupid rope. the al jazeera footage that can be found on youtube is quite clear on that, and there are probably more complete videos out there, as the whole enterprise was planned first and foremost as a media exercise. Worse, as witnesses say, and what is probably out there on video as well, after the first soldiers were overpowered, soldiers repelling were shooting from the air, there being no way they can claim self defense. now, iff you do not wish to surprise people, and if you yourself do not wish to be surprised I suppose you do not arrive at 4:30 at the doorstep, and if you are polite I suppose you wait till 9 o clock. There was no urgency, the ferry was far away from Gaza. It might also help with communications if you speak Turkish when you enter a Turkish ship in any way that might be misunderstood. It would also help - remember, this is a media exercise, if you explain why you do what you are doing - it would look good for the cameras. It would also help for the cameras and assure civilized proceedings to send ordinary customs officers for these missions and not elite batallions trained for warfare and nothing else. And maybe you should not be in international waters, trying to enter a ship with a Turkish flag. Now let me guess: the Israeli goal for that media exercise was "deterrence of human rights activists"? It would be so easy to get rid of them - just don't give them a cause.
The people who got killed had names and faces. Muslim names and radical Islamic faces. When Israel was killing the 9 "peace activists" that were lynching the soldiers Turkey was probably killing 90 poor Kurds, just like they do everyday, the hypocrites.
what utter hogwash. what a SOp to teh terrorists who planed to kill the soldiers. This was not about peace or protesting this was about murdering israeli soldier. What these stupid bastards did was niow set the tone for any future boarding where the soldiers will be armed to the teeeth with lethat weapons as opposed to paint bal guns.
next ....
The Israeli navy while trying to cover this criminal act...it makes a joke out of it's " undefeatable army"!!
Israel defeated you in 4 wars and if necessary can do it tomorrow.. And I have seen Egyptian commandos in Cyprus and malta...No something to be proud of ...I have seen Israeli commandos in Entebbe..u c the difference ??
Don't joke around about the IDF's first choice to use peaceful but firm means to turn around the illegal flotilla filled with civilians held captive by the militants. Remember the Milta Pass when you want to see the IDF in front-on action when no civilians are present. Unfortunately Islamic militants are not quite brave enough for that kind of manly action yet as we see from many encounters with them.
Egyptian, this was not an Israeli army bent on destruction. I think your country has seen that army, and we know the results. There's nothing criminal about self-defense. Only your logic.
lest the world is reminded why so many of your armys boots were left in teh sinai as the troops could run easier with them off or perhaps why all teh Eygprian tanks have four reverse gears to run away faster. easy not friend egypt is not the sharpest tack in the box
Yes.This is the same Israeli Army that wipped your rear end in 1956,1967 and in 1973,inspite your egyptian heros being loaded with russian guns and outnumbering the IDF more than 5 to 1...The same Army!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dragged into a hall for a few minutes = kidnapping. Dragged off a boat & held in a detention camp = not kidnapping.
The equations are derived from the same school of thought that says might=right
But thanks for your brilliant and beautifully spelled message
They had no doubt that the IDF would eventually gain control of the ship, so where were they planning on hiding these three clowns so the search parties couldn't find them? Under their shirt, perhaps?
But why are the Israelis giving excuses? Does Turkey give any excuse to kill Kurds (60,000 so far). Did they give any excuse for killing 1,5 million Armenians? The day Israel killed those Islamists Turkey was probably killing 90 Kurds. Hypocrites.
If the first censored report of IDF is so bad and proofs the reports from the activists. The second soldier who was reaching the deck was opening lethal fire after 20 seconds after mission began. I feel really pityfullness with theese soldiers, who where sended in this mission impossible but it is time for this government to resign. How hypocritical of prime minister Netanyahu to shake hands with his soldiers and saying you were doing a good job, after this disaster. The poor fellows, who were sending into this operation dont have to be blamed but this government, which is stil trying to keep in power.
on what really happend with a lot of eye witnesses including TV reporters and media correspondents. There is an invention of how terrible the activists are and how bad their intentions towards the state of Israel were every day. For God sake, have mercy with the intelligence of the readers please!
Al Jazeera is offering platform to suicide murderers.
Have mercy with our intelligence, fool
From the posts I can see you are not very intelligent.
and itthis adds to the sanctimonious fury outside of Israel
Why save the lives of wounded terrorists? The world would be a more harmonious place without these islamo-terrorists. All nations are hunting them down all over the globe and killing them without hesitation...doesn't make sense to let them go to hunt them down again. "PEACE Activists" by a**!!!
When Israel is involved . Obama's face will burn from the shame of not coming out and equivocally defend Israel's right to repel terror and condemn all those anarchists who are manipulated by known terrorists .
Wait for this November! And in 2 years bye..bye.
The terrorists who organized this mayhem knew well that they are facing a civilized Israel . Otherwise this ship would of been sunk .
isrl civilized, lol that was a good one.
Yeah, you are right. The enemies of Israel are civilized. Iran, hanging (non-existing) gays in public squares. The Arab world, 22 countries, two in Palestine, Jordan and Gaza: All bloody dictatorships or medieval kingdoms, neraly all at civil war. They even kill their own daughters and sisters for "honour"
How is Israel going to take on Iran on Iran's home court -- when they can't even keep from being taken hostage against a handful of irregulars on a ship the Israelis have completely surrounded and greatly outnumber?
schmuck, israel could have taken over the boad in seconds if they used lethal force..They were trying to take over the boat while trying to cause mnimal casualities...not easy.. These commandoes are trained to kill ...not to do police work
All these press releases mean nothing until all the full videos are released, and any footage taken from the ship's passengers are returned so they can be released too.
Release ALL video unedited. Israeli and activist video.
Next, the Israeli's wil be saying that the flotilla members actually rappeled down ropes and fired on the naval commandos. For Christ's sake, give it a break.
Probably storming up the ropes to take over the choppers. They were that good. Absolutely, give it a break. Israel is in crazy spin mode, and it does them no credit. Israel: we attacked their ship, they fought back, and that resulted in bloodshed, so they are murderous terrorists. Credibility: zero.
Is anyone supposed to believe Amos Harel article? The act of dragging the three commandos below decks was the precursor for abduction! What were the activists going to do? Perhaps use their Star Trek powers to 'beam' the commandos from the hull of their vessel to the Hamas Mother-ship? Perhaps, just perhaps, the three commandos were dragged away to keep them from being hurt any further?
You attach Too much nobleness to those plain murderers who belong to a know terror supporting org . Unless you faking , do not be so naive .
Is it even on any terror lists?
It is either "beam me up Scotty" or they were going to render them invisible with their cloaking device.
What other stories are they going to make up to have people think they are the victim. Truth is the cammandos were just a bunch of screw-ups.
just perhaps... If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.
in order to justify what hit the fan roll and roll and roll...the world doesn't know anything, only IDF knows and its incompetent so called best of the best leaders...or the wise sage!
The soldiers did not have a chance. They were told by the West it was a boat of humanitarians. And the boat greets the soldiers with clubs and crowbars taken from parts of deadly wheelchairs. Now we know how they use "Humanitarian aid" for Gaza. Every time Israel offers its hand in friendship, Arabs light a match. This time it was through Hamas-type party in Turkey. Now they try to use Obama too. Israel was patient. But we get rockets even with the Blockade. Imagine without!!!
' Israel was patient'. It seems to me that the world lost patience with Israel. When I was in the arrny, the visits at 4 am, jumping from an helicopter, were never friendly. May be the new army is different?
What an absurd narrative you are trying to construct; these 'terrorists,' or 'hired killers' came to murder soldiers and they arm themselves with clubs and crowbars taken from "deadly wheelchairs?"
A wheelchair turned into a deadly weapon when you were jumping from Choppers? I don`t think so. Only pro-Gaza al-Qaida supporters of Iran do such things... this enemy is the present!
'wheelchair turned into a deadly weapon ' No they used to have real rockets, real guns. Thanks to the blockade, you are lucky they didn't have chocolate bomb with cylantro detonator.
If so... what is the problem. Before, they had weapons. Now they don't. I'm sure our troops prefer to face terror wheelchairs to deadly rockets and suicide bombers!!
You know, the ones showing the IDF being viciously clubbed and knifed. You don't need a gun to kill someone Ryan and Present, the human race has been killing for thousands of years without them. Why would you think a metal bar from a wheelchair does not present a lethal threat when used with intent to kill? Maybe your heads are thicker than mine?
It shows one of teh terrorists ion the upper deck (no pun imntended) opening a long box of four feet and passing out the steel rods they used to beat troops with. it is a short clip before Al jezeera changed teh subject picture but it is there unedited
I think Israel should send the navy to liberate Northern Cyprus and Kurdistan. The day Israel killed 9 Turkish Islamist "peace activists", the Turkish army probably killed 90 Kurds. What are Turkish intentions? To kill as many Kurds as they killed Armenians? Arabs have 22 countries, two in Palestine, Jordan and Gaza. Arabs are from Arabia and stole other people's land (including the Jew's Palestine). Jews have one country, little Israel, 0,00000000000001% of the ME. Kurds have none and their country is under Turkish, Iranian, Arab Syria and Arab Iraq occupation. Free Kurdistan now!
leave kurds and turks and iranian alone a lot of people who died come from dyarbakir kurdistan!! they dont love you to say the least it s hard to have sympathie for you anymore
You know many Kurdish freedom fighters were members of the PLO back in the day right? What makes you think freeing Kurdistan is any benefit to Israel??? Next step freeing Palestine!
@joaquim levi your such a liar!!! nothing more!
What would they send? Unarmed civilians could according to this report take 3 elite commandos hostage!