ACTIVISTS REACT:BARRED FROM entering the port by Israeli security, the media encamped on a hill with a view of the sea and the harbour.
Above our heads loomed a red-and-white checked tower and on the grass at its base lounged a group of blue-suited Israeli police.
We all waited for the Israeli navy to escort the six captured ships into the embrace of the breakwater. The Free Gaza movement's Challenger-Ipassenger vessel, the fastest of the flotilla, was the first to arrive at about 1.30pm just as an enterprising vendor set up a stall for hotdogs and cold drinks. Television cameras sprouted from a rocky outcrop on the wrong side of the railings while media folk patrolled with mobile phones, pointlessly trying to contact members of the flotilla, which was carrying 700 passengers and 10 tonnes of aid to Israeli-besieged and blockaded Gaza.
Israelis wrapped in blue-and-white national flags scuffled briefly with supporters of the flotilla.
Free Gaza organisers relied on coverage by the world media, particularly al-Jazeera, which broadcast live footage taken by the channel’s team on the Turkish boat. This showed Israeli commandos in full combat gear rappelling on to the vessel from helicopters.
The correspondent on the spot, Jamal Elshayyal, said there had been no live fire directed at the Israeli troops from the ship and that two passengers had been killed during the initial assault.
Passengers were ordered into the cabins and to put up white flags which they did before an Israeli blackout disrupted communications.
Greta Berlin, Cyprus-based spokeswoman for Free Gaza, said: “We have not had contact with the ships since the Israelis staged their raid at 3.30 this morning. We have no names of people injured or killed. The dead and wounded were evacuated, finally . . .
“All the deaths were on the Turkish boat. It was not the only one to be attacked. There were three injuries on the European boat as well, including the captain who was badly injured. He refused to get treatment in Israel and was flown to Greece.”
Ms Berlin confirmed the assertion of Murat Mercan, a Turkish government spokesman, who said that the Mavi Marmarahad been thoroughly inspected for weapons before it set sail. "On the Turkish ship, there was an 18-month-old baby whose parents would have never embarked on the voyage if they had thought there was any danger," she said.
Passengers and crew on the other vessels, which had also been inspected, had been trained to resist arrest peacefully.
The Rachel Corrie, the delayed cargo ship that set off from Ireland, is due to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean in the coming days. Nobel laureate Maireád Corrigan-Maguire and former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, both Irish nationals, are on board. "We are going again in a week," said Ms Berlin.
Heddy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, intends to go on this trip. “This will be my fourth try,” she said on the phone from Cyprus.
Jeff Halper, an Israeli peace activist who sailed on the first voyage mounted by Free Gaza in August 2008, observed: “All these people died and were injured because the world’s governments abrogated their responsibilities.
“The siege is illegal. There is no reason for it to remain in place a year and a half after the last Israeli war on Gaza. The people have to take action because their governments won’t. Europe is responsible, the US is responsible.”