Returning flotilla activists say ship turned into lake of blood by IDF beatings

Still no news on UK activists beyond Ma'an news agency reporting 12 injured earlier today on their ticker but with no link. Middle East News blog has a report on one Briton that was injured but no name is given.

BERLIN — Pro-Palestinian activists returning to Europe said Israeli commandos used stun guns on passengers and beat them during the deadly raid on an aid flotilla that was trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. One woman said her aid ship “turned into a lake of blood.”

Five Germans, six Greeks and several others — among them a Turkish woman and her 1-year-old baby — were released Tuesday, but Israel barred access to hundreds of other activists seized during the raid Monday that killed at least nine people and wounded dozens.

Israel sent commandos onto six ships carrying nearly 700 activists, and there have been conflicting accounts of what happened during the assault. Most of those killed were aboard the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara.

Norman Paech, a former member of Germany’s Left Party who was aboard the Marmara, said the ship was surrounded by small Israeli assault boats about 4:30 a.m. Monday morning.

“Moments later, we heard detonations and then soldiers from helicopters above us dropped down on board,” Paech said. “The soldiers were all masked, carrying big guns and were extremely brutal.”

The Israeli government says its soldiers were defending themselves, and has released video showing soldiers in riot gear being struck by activists with sticks — and one soldier appears to have been shoved into the water. Israel says the activists were armed with metal rods, knives, slingshots and two pistols snatched from the troops.

When asked about the Israeli video, Paech said he only saw three activists resisting.

“They had no knives, no axes, only sticks that they used to defend themselves,” Paech said at a news conference in Berlin at the Reichstag, where the lower house of parliament meets, after he and four other Germans returned Tuesday from Tel Aviv. more

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