ISRAEL is trying censor coverage of the deaths of as many as 10 people after its navy stormed a convoy of boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza.
The Jewish state's army radio said between 10 and 14 people had been killed in clashes which broke out after the passengers allegedly tried to grab weapons off the naval commandos who tried to storm one of the boats.
The military was trying to censor information on casualties brought to Israel for treatment, Israeli radio said. It is immediately unknown whether the dead and injured were passengers or members of the Israeli navy.
The flotilla - carrying tons of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip - was intercepted after the Israeli navy had tracked it throughout the night.
Israeli commandos descended from helicopters shortly before dawn after the ships had changed course around midnight in an attempt to avoid a confrontation with the military 124 kilometres off the coast of Israel.
Passengers of the so-called Freedom Flotilla immediately put on life jackets and were on high alert, according to the international group. A reporter from Al-Jazeera television on board said they decided to continue their efforts to reach the Gaza coast but changed course to gain time and try to reach the enclave during the day.
Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the German Press Agency dpa that the military had communicated with the organisers of the flotilla by radio, asked them to identify themselves and gave them the option to follow the navy to the Israeli port of Ashdod, 30 kilometres north of the Strip, or to return to their departure ports.
The ships decided to continue to Gaza. The organizers of the flotilla last week rejected an Israeli offer to unload their aid at Ashdod, where it would be inspected before being transferred to the Gaza Strip.
The flotilla, carrying 700 activists and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid, set off from Cyprus yesterday afternoon on the last leg of what organisers hoped would be a successful attempt to break Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip.
Israel vowed to stop them, said it would arrest all the passengers on board and take them to a special detention facility set up in Ashdod, where they would be questioned and asked to leave the country voluntarily.
Israel placed the Gaza Strip under siege in 2006 after militants based in the enclave launched a cross-border raid on an Israeli army outpost and snatched an Israeli soldier, who is still being held somewhere in the salient.
The blockade was tightened further in June 2007 when gunmen from the Islamist Hamas movement routed security officers loyal to the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas and seized control of the Strip.
Since then, Israel has kept tight control over the border crossings, supervising the aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip and at times stopping it temporarily when militants launch rockets at Israeli communities adjacent to the enclave.
Hamas has reacted strongly to the deadly raid, urging Arabs and Muslims to "rise up'' in front of Israeli embassies across the globe.
"We call on all Arabs and Muslims to rise up in front of Zionist embassies across the whole world,'' said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, using the Arabic word 'intifada'.
Ismail Haniya, the Islamist movement's prime minister in Gaza, slammed the "ugly attack'' in a statement in which he called for ``the United Nations to protect the activists'' on board the boats.
Turkey's foreign ministry has warned that the raid may lead to "irreparable consequences'' in bilateral ties.
"We strongly condemn these inhumane practices of Israel,'' a written statement said.
"This deplorable incident, which took place in open seas and constitutes a fragrant breach of international law, may lead to irreparable consequences in our bilateral relations,'' it said.
The Israeli ambassador was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry today after Israeli forces stormed a Turkish aid ship, a Turkish diplomat said.
"The ambassador (Gabby Levy) was summoned to the foreign ministry. We will convey our reaction in the strongest terms,'' the diplomat, who asked not to be named, said.
AFP