Gaza flotilla raid

Israeli naval interception of a six-ship flotilla bound for Gaza on 31 May 2010, in which nine passengers on the Mavi Marmara were killed

Gaza flotilla raid
The Mavi Marmara leaving port, 22 May 2010. Photograph: Free Gaza Movement, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Type	Military interception at sea; naval raid
Date	31 May 2010
Location	Eastern Mediterranean, 72 nautical miles from land, on the route to the Gaza Strip
Participants	Israeli naval commandos (Israel Defense Forces); about 700 passengers of some 40 nationalities on six vessels, including the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara
Organisers	A coalition of non-governmental organisations, led by the Turkish group IHH
Inquiry status	Examined by a UN Human Rights Council mission (2010), the Israeli Turkel Commission, a Turkish national commission, a UN Secretary-General's panel (2011) and the International Criminal Court's prosecutor (2013–2017)
Casualties	Nine passengers killed on 31 May 2010 (a tenth died in 2014 after four years in a coma); many passengers wounded; several Israeli soldiers wounded
Outcome	Israeli apology to Turkey (March 2013); $20 million compensation and normalisation of relations (June 2016); Israel's naval blockade of Gaza maintained
Other	Also called the Mavi Marmara raid or Mavi Marmara incident

The Gaza flotilla raid (also the Mavi Marmara raid or Mavi Marmara incident) was the interception by Israeli naval commandos on 31 May 2010 of a flotilla of six vessels carrying passengers and supplies towards the Gaza Strip, in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. Nine passengers on the largest ship, the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, were killed and many were wounded. A tenth passenger died in 2014 after four years in a coma. The raid brought a six-year rupture between Israel and Turkey, produced four official inquiries with differing conclusions, and led Israeli Military Intelligence to set up the Delegitimization Department to monitor overseas groups campaigning against Israel.

Background

Israel's commission of inquiry told the UN panel that Israel imposed a naval blockade on the coast of the Gaza Strip on 3 January 2009, to stop weapons, militants and money reaching Hamas. The BBC describes the closure as an Israeli and Egyptian blockade that Israel maintains to put pressure on Hamas, which dominates the territory.

The flotilla was organised by a coalition of non-governmental organisations. The leading group was the Turkish charity İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), which owned two of the ships, including the Mavi Marmara. The six ships left ports in Ireland, Turkey and Greece and met about 30 miles south of Cyprus. They carried some 10,000 tonnes of supplies and about 700 passengers holding passports of 40 countries, most of them Turkish; 546 were on the Mavi Marmara. The UN panel accepted that most participants were motivated by concern for the people of Gaza, and that a main aim of the organisers, besides delivering aid, was to generate publicity by trying to breach the blockade.

The organisers' status was disputed. Israel's own commission described IHH as a "humanitarian organization with a radical-Islamic orientation" that supports Hamas, and said it had been declared an "impermissible association" in Israel. The UN panel said there was "some suggestion" that IHH had supported Hamas but that it lacked the information to assess the allegation. The Turkish government regards IHH as a legitimate charity.

The raid

The Israeli commission told the UN panel that warnings to turn back were sent to the flotilla between 10.40 p.m. on 30 May and 12.41 a.m. on 31 May, and that none followed because of the need for a covert take-over; the captain of the Mavi Marmara replied that he would not stop. The flotilla was boarded at 4.26 a.m. on 31 May, 72 nautical miles from land. Commandos landed on the Mavi Marmara by rope from helicopters, and clashes began at once.

Who used force first remains disputed. The activists said the commandos opened fire as soon as they reached the deck; Israel said they fired only after being attacked with clubs, knives and a gun taken from them. The BBC reported that the video released by the Israeli military stops just before the shooting begins. The UN panel found that the soldiers faced "significant, organized and violent resistance" from a group of passengers, that three soldiers were captured and mistreated, and that several were wounded. All nine dead were Turkish nationals, one of them also a US citizen; the BBC later reported ten deaths, counting the passenger who died in 2014.

Inquiries

Official examinations of the raid

Body	Date	Main conclusions
UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission (chair K. Hudson-Phillips; members Sir Desmond de Silva and Shanthi Dairiam)	Report made public 22 September 2010	The interception on the high seas was "clearly unlawful"; the force used was "disproportionate" and showed "an unacceptable level of brutality"; there was clear evidence to support prosecutions for wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment. Israel declined to cooperate. Israel rejected the report as "biased" and "one-sided".
Turkish national commission	Interim and final reports to the UN panel	Accused the commandos of "excessive, brutal and pre-meditated" conduct; found the boarding unlawful and the blockade unlawful.
Public Commission to Examine the Maritime Incident of 31 May 2010 (the Turkel Commission, Israel), headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel	Report to the UN panel	Found the navy's actions and the blockade legal under international law, with some criticism of planning; its report said the mission had not anticipated significant violent opposition to the boarding.
UN Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry (chair Sir Geoffrey Palmer; vice-chair Álvaro Uribe), set up 2 August 2010	Report published 2 September 2011	The blockade was a legitimate security measure and complied with international law; the flotilla "acted recklessly" in trying to breach it; but boarding "with such substantial force at a great distance from the blockade zone and with no final warning" was "excessive and unreasonable"; the loss of life was "unacceptable" and Israel gave no satisfactory explanation for any of the nine deaths. It recommended a statement of regret and payment to the victims' families.

Turkey's president, Abdullah Gül, said of the UN panel's report that it was "null and void for us".

International Criminal Court

The Comoros, on whose register the Mavi Marmara sailed, referred the raid to the International Criminal Court on 14 May 2013. On 6 November 2014 the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said there was a reasonable basis to believe war crimes had been committed on the Mavi Marmara, but that any case would not be of "sufficient gravity" to justify further action, and closed the preliminary examination. On 16 July 2015, at the Comoros' request, Pre-Trial Chamber I asked her to reconsider; the Appeals Chamber dismissed her appeal on 6 November 2015, and on 29 November 2017 she notified the chamber of her final decision not to open an investigation.

Intelligence failures and the Delegitimization Department

Haaretz reported in 2011 that the investigations into the raid had found that Israel's intelligence agencies failed to provide information that could have helped the country prepare for the violent resistance the commandos met on the Mavi Marmara, and that Military Intelligence created a research-division unit to monitor groups abroad that the army regarded as seeking to delegitimise Israel. In 2015 Haaretz named the unit as the Delegitimization Department and reported that it had been set up as part of the lessons of the raid. By the time of its March 2013 apology to Turkey, the BBC noted, the Israeli government had admitted mistakes in intelligence-gathering and planning, while insisting that the commandos used lethal force because they were attacked.

Diplomatic aftermath

After the UN panel reported, Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador and suspended military agreements in September 2011 over Israel's refusal to apologise; Israel offered regret but not an apology. On 22 March 2013, in a telephone call brokered by US President Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu apologised to the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for "any errors that could have led to loss of life" and agreed to compensate the families; the two agreed to return ambassadors and to drop Turkish legal proceedings against four senior Israeli officers. In June 2016 Israel and Turkey normalised relations: Israel agreed to pay $20 million in compensation, and Turkey agreed to legislate to protect Israeli troops from claims over the raid and to allow aid and infrastructure projects in Gaza. Netanyahu said the blockade would remain.

See also

• Delegitimization Department
• Aman
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
• Re'ut Mor
• Liron Libman
• Aliza Landes
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Turkey
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Comoros