Israeli navy attacks Pro-Palestinian aid flotilla; 2 killed

There were reports on Monday that Israeli warships had attacked at least one of six ships carrying pro-Palestinian activists and aid bound for blockaded Gaza, killing at least two people and wounding an unknown number of people on board. The Israeli military denied that its forces attacked the boats but said they would enforce the decision to keep them away from Gaza.
However, other Israeli security officials confirmed that activists were wounded early on Monday.
They said the troops faced resistance and that soldiers were under orders only to fire if their lives were in danger. A Turkish website showed video of pandemonium on board one of the ships, with activists in orange life jackets running around as some tried to help a man apparently unconscious on the deck.
The site also showed video of an Israeli helicopter flying overhead and Israeli warships nearby.
AP Television cannot independently verify the content and authenticity of the video.
The al-Jazeera satellite channel reported by telephone from the Turkish ship leading the flotilla that Israeli navy forces had fired at the ship and boarded it, wounding the captain.
The Turkish NTV network also reported an Israeli takeover with gunfire, and said that at least two people were killed.
Footage showed soldiers descending from helicopters on ropes onto a ship.
The reports came just after daybreak, with the flotilla still well away from the Gaza shore.
Israel had declared it would not allow the ships to reach Gaza.
Greek activists said people on board one of the ships in the flotilla told them that Israeli forces boarded two other boats, one Greek, another Turkish, from helicopters and inflatable speedboats and took them over. They said the attack took place in international waters 80 miles (128 kilometres) from the Gaza coast and that the boat had refused to obey the Israeli navy's orders to halt.
On Sunday, Huwaida Arraf, one of the organisers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey from international waters off the coast of Cyprus on Sunday afternoon after two days of delays.
She said they expected to reach Gaza, about 250 miles (400 kilometres) away, on Monday afternoon, and that two more ships would follow in "a second wave."
The flotilla was "fully prepared for the different scenarios" that might arise, and organisers were hopeful that Israeli authorities would "do what's right" and not stop the convoy, she said.
After nightfall on Sunday, three Israeli navy missile boats left their base in Haifa, steaming out to sea to confront the activists' ships.
Two hours later, Israel Radio broadcast a recording of one of the missile boats warning the flotilla not to approach Gaza.
The flotilla, which includes three cargo ships and three passenger ships, is trying to draw attention to Israel's blockade of Gaza.
The boats are carrying items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials.
The activists said they also were carrying hundreds of electric-powered wheelchairs, prefabricated homes and water purifiers. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said that after a security check, permitted humanitarian aid confiscated from the boats will be transferred to Gaza through authorised channels.
However, Israel would not transfer items it has banned from Gaza under its blockade rules.
This is the ninth time that the Free Gaza movement has tried to ship in humanitarian aid to Gaza since August 2008.
Israel has let ships through five times, but has blocked them from entering Gaza waters since a three-week military offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers in January 2009.
The flotilla bound for Gaza is the largest to date. Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists are on the boats, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor.