The flotilla raid triggered outrage in the Arab world and across Europe, as many of the passengers were from European countries. It also strained already tense relations with Israel’s longtime Muslim ally Turkey, the unofficial sponsor of the mission, and drew more attention to the plight of Gaza’s 1.5 million people.

Lubna Marsawa, Free Gaza’s organizer on the Turkish passenger boat said in outrage,

Very few times in history has a flotilla delivering humanitarian goods been welcomed by military war ships.This is a call to the world from the people on the boats. We are a civilian people doing what our governments have refused to do, challenge Israel’s right to collectively punish 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza by blockading their right to their own sea. This flotilla is bringing construction and educational supplies the people of Gaza and are being met by Israeli warships.

There were conflicting accounts of what happened early Monday, with activists claiming the Israelis fired first, and Israel insisting that its forces fired in self-defense. Communications to the ships were cut shortly after the raid began, and activists were kept away from reporters after their boats were towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Officials in Israel said the elite naval units were attacked as they attempted to board one of the ships, and that the commandos used live fire only when they felt their lives were threatened. Dozens of passengers and at least five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the confrontation in international waters.

Israel called the violence “pre-planned” and accused one of the Turkish organizing groups of having what it said were “terrorist ties to Hamas,” the Islamist Palestinian group that runs Gaza.

On the other hand, German activists who were on an aid ship bound for Gaza raided by Israeli commandos said Tuesday that nobody on board was armed with anything more than a few wooden batons.

A German doctor on the ship, Matthias Jochheim, who had bloodstains on his trousers from people he treated, said that he had personally seen four dead people and that he expected the total death toll to be 15.

Israeli soldiers raid an Aid ship in the Mediterranean

The U.N. Security Council is calling for an impartial investigation of Israel’s deadly commando raid on ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and condemning the “acts” that resulted in the loss of at least nine lives.

After an emergency meeting and marathon negotiations, the 15 council members agreed early Tuesday on a presidential statement that was weaker than that initially demanded by the Palestinians, Arabs and Turkey.

They had called for condemnation of the attack by Israeli forces “in the strongest terms” and “an independent international investigation.”

The Palestinians and Arabs, backed by a number of council members, also called for Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, immediately release the ships and humanitarian activists, and allow them to deliver their goods. The council later moved into closed consultations to consider possible action.

In a new development, Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory follwing the raid on the humanitarian convoy. Several thousand Gazans are making a furious rush to the Egyptian border, hoping to take advantage of a rare chance to escape the blockaded territory.

Marina Barakatt, a former Cal Poly SJPME officer, is one of some 1,360 persons — including doctors, lawyers, diplomats, rabbis, imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas — due to take part in the event on 31 December organized by Gaza Freedom March, a coalition of activists of all faiths focusing on human rights.

She reported that the Egyptian authorities have finally allowed only 100 out of 1,300 protesters into blockaded Gaza after the activists staged demonstrations and a hunger strike. This decision have created confusion and division among the 1300 delegates who came to Cairo planning to reach the Palestinian enclave, which shares the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor, center, was among hunger strikers in Cairo on Tuesday showing solidarity with Gazans.

According to AFP, some organisers said Egypt’s offer was a victory after it initially refused to allow any of the protesters into the Gaza Strip for the Gaza Freedom March, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday. “It’s a partial victory,” said Medea Benjamin, an American activist and one of the demonstrations organisers. “It shows that mass pressure has an effect.”

The offer, however, angered many of the activists. Dozens of French activists camped out in front of their embassy in Cairo after being refused passage. A French organiser rejected it as divisive and said the sit-in in front of the French embassy would continue.”This just gives the Egyptian government a photo-up and the chance say we allowed people through,” said Bassem Omar, a Canadian protester. Activists left behind in Cairo said they planned further protests.

Margaret Hawthorn, 62, who flew in from Massachusetts in the US to take part in the event, said she was stunned to discover she would not be allowed to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. “It’s important that we come here to express support for the people of Gaza,” she told IRIN.

Activist and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein is amongst those prevented from traveling to Gaza by the Egyptian authorities

According to NYTimes, Hedy Epstein, 85, a Holocaust survivor, arrived in Egypt from the United States on Saturday. She said she started a hunger strike on Monday.

“My message is for the world governments to wake up and treat Israel like they treat any other country and not to be afraid to reprimand and criticize Israel for its violent policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians,” Ms. Epstein said. “I brought a suitcase full of things, pencils, pens, crayons, writing paper to take to children in Gaza — I can’t take that back home.”

Israeli sailors boarded the Spirit of Humanity, a Greek-registered vessel, on Tuesday off the coast of Gaza and seized those on board.”They forcibly boarded the ship, detained all our passengers and illegally took them to Israel against their will. This is a kidnapping. This is the act of piracy at sea,” Ramzi Kyzia, an activist from the Free Gaza Movement, told a news conference in Cyprus.

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Israeli Navy seize aid boat off the coast of Gaza strip [AFP

A United Nations human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip “unlawful” and said its blockade of the territory constituted a “continuing crime against humanity”.

Richard Falk, a Jewish American and the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel’s “cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza” in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against “an occupied people”.
Falk, who is an expert on international law, said Israel’s two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to “bare subsistence levels”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.

“Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity,” Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.

Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the UN investigator. “None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed.”

“Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with ‘illegal entry’ to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel,” Falk added.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was “known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements”. Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said. “Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel,” he told Reuters.

Yigal Palmor, the Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, had said that those who signed an undertaking to return home voluntarily could be released immediately and repatriated on the first available flight.

Cynthia McKinney calls WBAIX from Israeli prison

In a related news, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that about 100 US activists have arrived in Egypt with the intention of traveling to Gaza to try to deliver medical aid despite a blockade on the territory. The activists are part of an initiative called “Viva Palestina” that aims to send a convoy of 200 people by July 13. US organizer Mansour al-Barbari said Sunday the intended aid if worth about $1 million.

Breaking News: The American detainees have been transferred to a detainment facility near Ben Gurion Airport. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the former congresswoman is released and is returning to the United States.