• UN calls for inquiry into Israel’s assault on Gaza flotilla
• Free Gaza Movement says it will send two more ships
• Erdogan warns Israel not to “test Turkey’s patience”
• Egypt opens border crossing with Gaza
• Follow all the latest news here
1.45pm:
The Israeli Defence Force has released a new video of an interview with one of the commandos who descended on the Mavi Marmara.
“It was a lynch,” says the unnamed soldier. “Every guy that came down the ropes was taken aside, and everyone there had metal rods, knives, slingshots, glass bottles.”
Yesterday the IDF released footage which it said showed soldiers being attacked onboard the Mavi Marmara, claims which have been denied by activists.
1.25pm:
From the Guardian’s Middle East editor Ian Black on Egypt opening the Rafah border crossing to the Gaza strip:
In one of the first signs of fallout from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla incident Egypt has announced that it is opening the the southern border of the Gaza Strip at Rafah to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
The crossing normally opens once a month for a few days. The sudden decision seems to show Egyptian embarrassment at Arab charges of complicity with the the Israeli blockade.
President Hosni Mubarak is deeply hostile to Hamas, which has close links to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest – and semi-outlawed- opposition group.
1.14pm:
Matthew Weaver emails with a summary of the day so far:
• The UN has called for an independent inquiry into the raid, but its compromise statement on the incident stops short of an outright condemnation.
• The Free Gaza Movement has sent more aid ships to the blockaded area despite warnings that they will be stopped by the Israeli military.
• The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Israel not to test Turkey’s patience. He called for Israel to be “punished” for the attack.
• More eyewitness accounts are emerging of what happened. Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, accused Israel of trying to “cause the largest number of fatalities” and said she did not hear any warning.
• The Foreign Office has confirmed that a British man was among the injured
• Israel has continued to insist that is troops were acting in self defence after they were attacked by activists.
1.07pm:
Channel 4 News has named a British man injured in the clashes.
The FCO confirmed to Channel 4 News that one Briton has been injured. He has been named as Ahsan Shamruk. He is believed to be in a stable condition as is being treated in hospital.
Shamruk’s Facebook page reveals him to be actively involved in the Palestinian cause. He belongs to groups such as Ship to Gaza, The History of Palestine, Voice and Echoes of Palestine, and Islamic Human Rights Commission.
He was a member of the Viva Palistina group, a UK registered charity founded by controversial former MP George Galloway. The group campaigns for the rights of Palestinians and aims to get humanitarian supplies out to the Gaza strip.
1.01pm:
Laura Macdonald Stuart
Ebrahim Musaji
Jamal Sayed
Parveen Yaqub
Baboo Adem Zanghar
Ahsan Shamruk
Mustafa Cengiz Ahmet
Tauqir Sharif
Boudejma Bounoua
Mohammad Bounoua
Sakir Yildirim
Kenneth O′Keefe
Ali El-Awaisi
Mohammed Bhaiyat
Lort Phillips Alexandra Mary
Sarah Nancy Colborne
Ismail Adam Patel
Nader Daher
Mahi Mohammed Abid
Nur-E-Azom Choudhury
Kevin Ovenden
Peter Venner
Clifford Gardner Hanley
Muzzammil Layth Chogley
Jamaluddin Mohammad Farid Elshayyal
Hassan Al Banna Ghani
Lazrag Salah
Ali Altan
“Consular staff are urgently seeking access to British nationals,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, however she was unable to verify Muslim News’s list.
Are you in contact with any of the Britons? If so email adam.gabbatt@guardian.co.uk or tweet @adamgabbatt
12.43pm:
A closer look at the UN Security Council statement reveals that they stopped short of condemning Israel for the attack, rather saying that they condemn “those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians″.
We have updated our story to reflect this.
Here′s the full text of the Security Council’s statement.
12.23pm:
Haneen Zuabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset who was on the Mavi Marmara, has accused Israel of trying to “cause the largest number of fatalities″.
She was released today after questioning and has been giving her version of events at a news conference, according to the Israeli news website ynetnews.com she told a conference.
“I entered the captain’s room. He was asked to stop by the Israeli soldiers. He said, ‘We are a Turkish ship.’ We were 130 miles off. It was 11:30 pm. We saw four Israel vessels, they were at a distance because we were in international waters. At 4:15 am we saw the ships approaching.
“They were dinghies and choppers. At 4:30 am the forces landed quickly. I did not hear any warning from the ships, because noise was coming from the ships and the choppers. Within 10 minutes there were already three bodies. The entire operation took about an hour.”
“There was not a single passenger who raised a club. We put on our life vests. There were no clubs or anything of the sort. There were gunshots, I don’t know if they were live bullets or not. There were gunshots fired from the ships in our direction.
“A clear message was being sent to us, for us to know that our lives were in danger. We convened that we were not interested in a confrontation. What we saw was five bodies. There were only civilians and there were no weapons. There was a sense that I many not come out of it alive. Israel spoke of a provocation, but there was no provocation.”
12.18pm:
My colleague Rob Booth emails with further confirmation of our Jerusalem correspondent Harriet Sherwood’s report (see 10.33am) on the Briton injured on the flotilla.
One British activist was injured in the fighting, the Foreign Office has confirmed. It said its consular team is heading to Beersheeva and is “urgently seeking information on other British nationals″. There are thought to be around 40 British campaigners caught up in the crisis.
At around 11am GMT lawyers for the campaigners were granted access to some of those imprisoned in Beersheva, according to Dr Arafat Mahdi, a UK based organiser of the flotilla.
12.10pm:
David Gaughran has sent me a link to this video from the Live Leak website, which he says shows Israelis chanting outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel.
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12.05pm:
Reuters has more from activists arriving at Athens airport – this is from Mihalis Grigoropoulos, who was steering one of the ships in the flotilla:
“They (Israelis) came down from helicopters and threw ropes from inflatable boats, climbing aboard. There was teargas and live ammunition.
“I was steering the ship, we saw them capture another ship in front of us, which was the Turkish passenger vessel with more than 500 people on board and heard shots fired.
“We did not resist at all, we couldn’t even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard? The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices.
“There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.
“They wouldn′t let us use the bathroom, wouldn′t give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this.”
11.54am:
Matthew Weaver writes:
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has delivered a furious speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara.
“This attack should definitely be punished,” he said to loud applause. “No one should test Turkey’s patience… The foundation of peace in the Middle East is being rocked by the reckless attitude of Israel,” he said.
“This bloody massacre by Israel on ships that were taking humanitarian aid to Gaza deserves every kind of curse,” he added.
He also revealed that Turkey had sent two ambulance flights to Israel to pick up Turks wounded in the raid, and that another flight is on the way. He called for the immediate release of the injured and those who continued to be detained.
The speech was given a standing ovation.
11.38am:
The news agency Reuters are running accounts of some of the activists in the flotilla.
Nilufer Cetin was travelling with her young son when the Israelli commandos boarded her ship.
“We stayed in our cabin and played games amid the sound of gunfire. My son has been nervous since yesterday afternoon … I did not need to protect my son. They knew there was a baby on board. I protected him by staying in my cabin, then went to the bathroom. I put a gas mask and life jacket on my son. We did not experience any other problems on
board, only a water shortage. We took walks on the deck, played games with my son. The curtains were drawn, so I did not see not the raid as it was happening. I only heard the voices. There are lightly and heavily wounded people.“There are thousands, millions of babies in Gaza. My son and I wanted to play with those babies. We planned to deliver them aid. We wanted to say ‘Look, it’s a safe place, I came here with my baby-son’. I saw my husband from a distance, he looked OK. The ship personnel was not wounded, because they (the soldiers) needed them to take the ship to
port. I will go again if another ship goes.”
11.15am:
The Palestinian-led International Solidarity Movement is reporting that a US activist injured in protests in the West Bank yesterday has lost her eye.
An American solidarity activist was shot in the face with a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Qalandiya, today. Emily Henochowicz is currently in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, following the demonstration that was held in protest to Israel’s murder of at least 10 civilians aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters this morning.
21-year old Emily Henochowicz was hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired directly at her by an Israeli soldier during the demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint today. Israeli occupation forces fired volleys of tear gas at unarmed Palestinian and international protesters, causing mass panic amongst the demonstrators and those queuing at the largest checkpoint separating the West Bank and Israel.
This YouTube video, posted by RussiaToday, appears to show Emily being carried to safety following a protest in Qalandiya.
The images are quite distressing.
Emily’s blog says she is a student at Cooper Union university in New York.
10.50am:
Harriet Sherwood is tweeting from Ashdod:
@harrietsherwood Activists in prison to be brought before judge and deported within 72 hours, says army radio #flotilla
@harrietsherwood 48 have already been deported #flotilla
10.33am:
At least one Briton was injured in the Israeli assault on the flotilla and has been hospitalised, according to the British embassy in Tel Aviv.
Harriet Sherwood, the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, reports that the man is not in a serious condition but is understood to have bruising and injuries requiring suturing. The embassy, which has has been allowed access to the activist, said it could not release any further identifying information.
Embassy spokeswoman Karen Kaufman said she believed the Briton had been on board the Marvi Marmara, the Turkish passenger ship on which at least 10 activists were killed in a off-shore battle with Israeli commandos yesterday.
More to follow
10.26am:
The South African news website Independent Online is reporting that a South African journalist covering the flotilla for community radio station Radio 786 in Cape Town caught up in the clashes is alive.
South African journalist Gadijah Davids, who was caught up in a clash between the Israeli Defence Force and an aid ship bound for Gaza, is alive, her relieved mother Magboeba said on Tuesday.
“The mere fact that she is alive is quite consoling for us,” Davids said.
The department of international relations told the family that she had been found, and they were currently working on finding out more about the conditions that she was being held under.
Davids said she had known the possibilities when she left.
10.19am:
The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Severin Carrell emails:
Carl Abernethy, a spokesman for the Free Gaza campaign group in Scotland, told The Guardian there was evidence two of their campaigners – Theresa McDermott, 43, from Edinburgh and Alex Harrison, 32, from London – may have been on board a vessel which had not been impounded by the Israelis, the MV Rachel Corrie.
Named after the US activist killed by Israeli security forces in Gaza in 2003, the Irish-registered vessel is still at sea and is planning to break the blockade in several days, Abernethy said.
Emails he received overnight showed that both McDermott, who was feared to have been arrested yesterday, and Harrison were on the original passenger list for the Rachel Corrie, which set sail from Dundalk several weeks ago.
However, those passenger lists were amended and “a bit confusing”, and it was unclear who had actually boarded the vessel and set sail, Abernethy said. He had not yet had confirmation that McDermott and Harrison were at liberty.
“The Rachel Corrie wasn’t apprehended and they′re still at sea; the intention remains still to get to Gaza over the next couple of days.
They′re going in the hope the Israelis won’t want a repeat of what happened yesterday,” he said.
The vessel is carrying cement, wheelchairs and crutches, school supplies and sports equipment, nearly 18tn of printing paper, photocopiers, 52tns of medical equipment, dentistry equipment, shoes and clothing for schools, medical facilities and refugee camps on the strip.
10.11am:
Matthew Weaver has been speaking to the relative of one of the people in the fleet.
“It’s incredibly worrying” says Abdul Rahman Elshayyal as he waits for news about his brother Jamal Elshayyal, a 25-year-old producer with Al Jazeera.
Jamal sent this report during the raid, before communications were cut.
Abdul Rahman said the video was “reassuring up to a point, up to the point that you’ve watched the same video about 100 times over and over again. But then you don’t know what’s happening afterwards.”
He adds: “I’m hoping and praying that he’s OK and that journalists will still be treated as well as they should be in situations like this.”
10.05am:
Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, told BBC Radio 4 this morning the storming of the aid flotilla had not been a success.
“It’s obvious – and I won’t beat around the bush on this – that this wasn’t successful and I think it clearly took up an issue that should have been solved differently,” he told the Today programme.
“But they were also, on the other side, really trying to do everything in order to provoke and confront and those militant elements rendered something which was supposed to be a humanitarian issue way out of proportion.
“So I think, yes, we take a lot of things back with us and we check that as we do. As you know, Israel is a vibrant democracy and the discussions are already beginning in Jerusalem.”
9.55am:
The activist Shane Dillon, who was seized from the flotilla yesterday, will be sent back to Ireland today, Press Association is reporting.
Six other Irish campaigners – including Dr Fintan Lane and Fiachra O Luain – are being detained in the Be’er Sheva detention camp, where they also face deportation. There has been no word yet on Caoimhe Butterly (see 9.13am).
Dillon, Lane and O Luain were on board Free Gaza boat Challenger 1 which was boarded by Israeli forces in international waters as it travelled from Cyprus.
Nobel peace prizewinner Mairead Maguire remains on board the Irish-owned vessel MV Rachel Corrie.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin, who maintains that the Irish citizens were kidnapped, confirmed the Irish ambassador in Tel Aviv was given permission to meet Dillon at Ben Gurion Airport before his departure.
The ambassador and officers from the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv are due to visit the detained Irish citizens during today.
“I will continue to press for full consular access being allowed, as is provided for under international law,” said Martin.
“I will be reporting to the Government later this morning on my meeting yesterday with the Israeli ambassador and on the measures which my department is taking to secure the immediate and unconditional release of those Irish citizens detained by Israel.”
9.39am:
More from Matthew Weaver:
Two Australian journalists, Paul McGeough and Kate Geraghty, are still believed to be in an Israeli prison following their arrest as they reported on the raid, according to their paper the Sydney Morning Herald.
9.33am:
As well as providing the latest updates, we’d like to hear from you.
Do you have friends or relatives on board? Were you involved in the Freedom Flotilla yourself? Have you seen any video, news or opinion you think we should be including in the blog?
Get in touch on Twitter @adamgabbatt, email adam.gabbatt@guardian.co.uk or comment below.
9.13am:
My colleague Matthew Weaver has this:
“The Irish activist Caoimhe Butterly, who was on the flotilla, recorded this message to YouTube before boarding the boat. ‘If you are watching this, this probably means that the flotilla has been either been attacked or stopped at sea,’ she begins.”
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9.08am:
Here’s the Downing Street statement on David Cameron’s conversation with Binyamin Netanyahu:
The PM spoke tonight to Israeli PM Netanyahu.
The PM deplored the heavy loss of life off the coast of Gaza earlier today. He reiterated the UK’s strong commitment to Israel’s security, but urged Israel to respond constructively to legitimate criticism of its actions, and to do everything possible to avoid a repeat of this unacceptable situation.
The PM also stressed the importance of urgently lifting the blockade of Gaza, and allowing full access for humanitarian aid.
8.59am:
Associated Press news agency is reporting that two people have been killed after crossing the border from Gaza into Israel.
The Israeli military says Gaza militants crossed the border and exchanged fire with troops. Israeli rescue services say two militants were killed.
Commandos boarding one of the ships Monday encountered resistance and killed nine pro-Palestinian activists in the ensuing clash.
The Israeli military says no troops were hurt in Tuesday′s clash on the Gaza border. Israeli police said roadblocks were thrown up inside Israel after the reported infiltration from Gaza.
Israel Radio reported that schoolchildren in the area were ordered to remain inside.
8.45am:
The UN security council has formally condemned Israel’s botched assault on the flotilla carrying aid supplies to the Gaza Strip and called for an impartial investigation into the incident.
At least nine people were killed in the raid yesterday as Israeli naval commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the flotilla carrying passengers. Dozens more were wounded and taken to Israeli hospitals. It sparked a wave of global condemnation and protests.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, expressed his shock at the military interception on the Gaza bound “Freedom Flotilla″, which was carrying relief supplies to Gaza.
“I condemn this violence,” Ban said from Kampala, Uganda, where he was presiding over the first review conference of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place,” he said. “I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation.”
Organisers of the flotilla said today they are sending two more ships to the area within the next few days. Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement said a cargo boat is already on the way to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza and a second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it.
Follow all the latest as the situation develops throughout the day here.
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