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A U.N. probe said Wednesday there is clear evidence to back
prosecutions of Israel for killing and torture when its troops stormed
a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.

In a scathing report, the panel also threw out Israel’s argument that
the aid activists were violent, thereby justifying the decision by
Israeli soldiers to open fire. The incident left eight Turkish
nationals and one American of Turkish descent dead and drew global
condemnation.

Saying some were victims of actions “consistent with ... summary
execution,” the inquiry ordered by the U.N. Human Rights Council said
Israel’s military used “unnecessary violence.”

These actions “constituted grave violations of human-rights law and
international humanitarian law,” it said, adding there was “clear
evidence to support prosecutions” of crimes including “willful
killing; torture or inhuman treatment; and willfully causing great
suffering or serious injury to body or health.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu hailed the U.N. report
Thursday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The report by the U.N. Human Rights Council “is extremely unbiased and
based on sound evidence. We appreciate it,” Davutoğlu was quoted as
telling reporters in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. general
assembly.

“It meets our expectations. I hope the Israeli side will ... from now
on act within international law,” he added.

Israel rejected the report as “biased” and “one-sided.”

“As expected of a democratic country, Israel has been – and still is –
investigating the events of the Gaza flotilla,” the Israeli Foreign
Ministry said in a statement released late Wednesday night.

The ministry added that its own committee of inquiry, which includes
two international observers, was still at work and that Israel had
also agreed to take part in an inquiry set up by the U.N. secretary-
general. “The report ... is as biased and as one-sided as the body
that has produced it,” the statement said. “Israel ... is of the
opinion that the flotilla incident is amply and sufficiently
investigated as it is. All additional dealing with this issue is
superfluous and unproductive.”

Israel has insisted that it acted in line with international law,
arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to
breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip. However, the probe
said Israel’s enforcement of a blockade was itself unlawful, since
Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis at the time of the
deadly raid.

“For this reason alone, the blockade is unlawful and cannot be
sustained in law. This is so regardless of the grounds on which it is
sought to justify the legality of the blockade,” said the report,
which will be presented to the rights council Monday.

The report said even those activists who did not try to stop Israeli
soldiers from boarding the aid ships “received injuries, including
fatal injuries” and that “it is apparent that no effort was made to
minimize injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use
of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner.”

“The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers
were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary
execution,” it added. “The conduct of the Israeli military and other
personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only
disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally
unnecessary and incredible violence.”

The fact-finding mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former
judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had traveled
to Turkey, Jordan and Britain to interview witnesses and officials for
the probe.

Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone War
Crimes Tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, a Malaysian human-rights expert,
are the other members of the panel.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=un-gaza-aid-probe-finds-clear-evidence-against-israel-2010-09-23