“Some of the activists on board were putting on bullet-proof vests and gas masks and tooling up with various weapons including iron tubes cut from the ship using buzz saws purposely brought on board.”
“Gaza activists ‘sought clash’: Israeli version supported by CC footage, Frattini says,” from ANSA.It, June 9 (thanks to Insubria):
(ANSA) – Rome, June 9 – Activists involved in last week’s deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza aid flotilla appear from closed-circuit camera footage to have “deliberately sought the clash,” Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.
Frattini said audio-visual material showed activists getting ready to repel an assault.
“Some of the activists on board were putting on bullet-proof vests and gas masks and tooling up with various weapons including iron tubes cut from the ship using buzz saws purposely brought on board,” the foreign minister told the Senate.
“They then split up into teams to isolate and hit as many Israeli soldiers as possible as soon as the assault was launched”.
Israel has consistently maintained that its soldiers acted in self-defence in firing on activists armed with knives and bars, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American aboard the flagship. Activists have said the commandoes attacked without provocation.
Frattini underscored that the full activists’ version of events “must be established”.
“For now we only know the (version) the Israelis have put out”….
But the video is clear.