tagged: Amalthea sails to Gaza, Amalthea ship to Gaza, Gaddafi's son prevented to board, Israel's probe into Mavi Marmara report

Amalthea sailing to Gaza – Israel’s Internal Probe into Mavi Marmara

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Ship to Gaza, Uncategorized, World GR

 Amalthea vessel carrying aid for Palestinians seems determined not to dock in Egypt as diplomatically arrangedbut in Gaza. Amalthea set sail Saturday from Greek port of Lavrion, loaded donated medical aid and food in Crete and seems to sail towards Gaza (www.marinetraffic.com) right now. The Moldavian-flagged vessel has been chartered bya Libyan charity organisation chaired by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

According to Israeli media, the  navy  would make contact with the ship while it was still far from Gaza, likely in international waters, and request that it follow naval vessels into Ashdod Port. If it refuses or does not agree to sail to Egypt the Army is has prepared plans to commandeer it.
 

Gaddafi’s son prevented from boarding on Amalthea – Libya banned flights to Greece & Cyprus

Meanwhile London based Arab Al-Sharq al-Awsatnewspaper reports Libya’s authorities have restricted the takeoff of private flights on Sunday in bid to prevent Saif Gaddafi from joining aid vessel Amalthea in Crete.  A Libyan official told the newspaper that the authorities were trying to prevent Gaddafi’s son or other Libyan figures from reaching the ship and that the flight restriction includes private flights to Greece, Cyprus and Crete, in addition to charter flights. “Libya believes the aid sail to Gaza conceals an adventure and a risk” the official said.

The Jerusalem Post, publishes main findings of  IDF’s  internal probe on Mavi Marmara’s assault that killed nine Turks and injured many.

The 100-page reportof  detailing findings speaks of “operational mistakes” made by higher officers of IDF rather than “failures”.

‘Navy should have prepared a Plan B’

Eiland slammed the Navy for not preparing a “Plan B” for the operation and should have reconsidered rappelling commandos onto the Mavi Marmara’s upper deck after noticing from sea and air that there were several dozen activists on board prepared to violently resist.

Eiland said that once the Navy ships sailed alongside the Mavi Marmara and saw the preparations on board for conflict, the top Navy command should have reconsidered its options and possible even delay the boarding of the ship.

“Once they saw that there were dozens of people on the deck, the rappelling of commandos down to the upper deck could still have been avoided,” the report concluded.

According to Eiland, the Navy did not have technology that would have enabled it to stop the ship ahead of the operation without putting soldiers on board its upper deck to take control of the bridge.  

‘MI should have designated Turkey and IHH as a target’

Another mistake that Eiland found was that Military Intelligence did not designate Turkey or the Islamic organization IHH, which organized the flotilla, as a target for intelligence gathering. He said that this was justified up until 2010 at the time since Turkey was a friendly country to Israel and IHH, was like a dozen other radical Islamic organizations that provided financial support to Hamas.

In the beginning of the year though, Eiland claimed that MI and Israel’s other intelligence agencies should have designated Turkey and IHH as intelligence targets due to the deterioration in ties between the countries. He said that the Israeli intelligence community should have understood that it was dealing with an organization that was supported by the ruling political party in Turkey and prepared accordingly.