Monday, May 31, 2010

Israel kills up to 19 blockade runners

Let's imagine a terrorist group grabs control of Maine. Our Navy blockades the state and six ships try to break through it.

We do nothing? Or do we prevent the ship from reaching the shore. Most people would choose the second option.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip a few years ago, weapons have been smuggled in, and the terror group has used it as a base to attack Israel. Yesterday a flotilla of six IHH ships, which Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called, "extremist supporters of terror," tried to reach Gaza. The Israelis told them to stop, they issued numerous radio warnings--but the flotilla didn't. The Israeli Defense Forces say they were fired upon. They fired back.

Yes, they were told to stop:



Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said of the incident, "We couldn't allow the opening of a corridor of smuggling arms and terrorists."

Details are sketchy, but it appears only one of the ships carried extremists, which is the one that opened fire on the IDF.

Israel expressed regret over the fatalities. Up to 19 may have been killed.

One of the ships was named for Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was accidentally run over by a bulldozer when she refused to get out of the way an Israeli demolition crew that was destroying a Gaza weapons storage tunnel.

UPDATE June 1: As of today it appears only nine were killed. Secondly, the Rachel Corrie is en route, it was not part of the flotilla.

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