ISTANBUL: Hundreds of Turkish activists from the Gaza aid flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos returned home to a heroes’ welcome Thursday and their leaders accused Israel of carrying out indiscriminate killings.
Organizers of the aid fleet also said the toll of nine dead given by Israel was too low. Facing major protests over Monday’s raid, Israel meanwhile rejected a UN Human Rights Council move to set up an international inquiry into the raid.
About 1,000 people, some chanting anti-Israeli slogans, packed Istanbul airport in the middle of the night to greet planes that brought back 466 activists and nine bodies from Israel. Another plane carrying 31 Greek activists three French nationals and an American flew into Athens.
Bulent Yildirim, head of the Islamist charity which spearheaded the campaign to break the Gaza blockade, charged that Israeli soldiers had killed activists indiscriminately when they stormed the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara.
The Turkish ferry had led six ships trying to get aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Yildirim highlighted the death of one journalist on the ship named Cevdet. "He was just taking pictures. He was shot at from no more than a meter and his brain exploded … one of our friends was shot even after he had surrendered," Yildirim, who heads the Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH), told reporters at Istanbul airport.
"They killed whoever they laid hands on. They even threw some of our friends into the sea."
Yildirim said the activists attacked the Israeli forces with iron bars "in self defense", adding that they also seized the soldiers’ weapons but threw them in the sea rather than using them.
Israel has said the commandos opened fire after they came under attack.
Yildirim said the death toll was higher than announced. "We were given the bodies of nine martyrs, but we have a longer list. There are missing people. Our doctors handed over 38 injured, on our return they (the Israelis) said there were only 21 injured."
He vowed to organize bigger convoys if Israel does not end its blockade of Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said officials were drawing up lists to verify that all the activists were deported and vowed to hold Israel to account.
"We are determined to protect the rights of all our citizens. We will ask the countries and people responsible to account for this," he said.
The returning activists included between 50 and 55. The planes also carried the nine dead activists. Turkey has said four of the dead were Turks and a foreign ministry official told AFP that the remaining were five were also probably Turks.
The bodies were taken to an Istanbul morgue where IHH officials and relatives were trying to identify them.
Three other planes brought 19 wounded activists to Ankara. A prosecutor was to question them for accounts of the bloody raid.
Turkey’s ambassador to Israel, Oguz Celikkol, who was recalled after Monday’s raid, also returned to Turkey Thursday, Anatolia news agency said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the activists as "violent supporters of terrorism", charging that Israeli forces were "stabbed, they were clubbed, they were fired upon" as they stormed the boat.
"This was not a love boat. This was a hate boat. These weren’t pacifists. These weren’t peace activists," he said.
The UN Human Rights Council said Wednesday it would set up an independent international probe into Israel’s interception of the ships.
Israel rejected the move. "The authority of this council, which once again is working stubbornly against Israel, has reached rock bottom," said foreign ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor.
Organizers say another ship is heading towards Gaza despite the risk of more violence.
The Rachel Corrie, carrying building supplies along with Irish and Malaysian activists, is in the Mediterranean. Organizers say it could arrive off Gaza on Monday.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin urged Israel to let the ship through, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon renewed his call for Israel to lift its Gaza blockade.
The UN secretary-general also said Israel should provide a "full and detailed account" of the commando raid.
Arab League foreign ministers, meanwhile, said after a five-hour emergency meeting in Cairo on Wednesday that their countries would "defy the Israeli blockade by every means."
Israeli officials said 682 people from 42 countries were on the six ships that tried to break the blockade.
Seven activists wounded in the clashes were still in an Israeli hospital, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said. An Irishman and two women from Australia and Italy remained in Israel "for technical reasons," he added, without elaborating.
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A relative weeps by the coffin of one of the victims of Israel’s deadly raid on aid ships bound for Gaza at the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul on June 3. (AFP Photo / Mustafa Ozer)
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Cigdem Topcuoglu (R), wife of Cetin Topcuoglu one of nine activists who was killed following Israel’s deadly raid on aid ships bound for Gaza, mourns by his coffin during a funeral service to the victims at the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul on June 3.(AFP Photo / Mustafa Ozer)
