On Friday, a Turkish court threw out the three-year old criminal case against four senior Israeli military officials for their role in the killings of 10 people on a Turkish-owned ship in 2010. The court also dropped the international arrest warrants for the men. The judges took two hearings to arrive at their decision, which they announced to a packed courtroom in Istanbul. Those who could not fit inside held a protest outside the courthouse. The families of the victims marched out of the courtroom while chanting before the decision was read, The Independent reported. The ruling is the outcome of the reconciliation agreement reached between Israel and Turkey in June 2016. Turkey accepted $20 million in compensation for the families of those killed, in exchange for granting legal immunity to Israel and Israelis for the attack on the Mavi Marmara. On 31 May 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the ship as it sailed in international waters, killing nine people and fatally injuring a tenth. The ship was part of an international flotilla to Gaza. Last summer, the Turkish parliament ratified the agreement, supposedly nullifying any criminal or civil claims against Israel. But families of the victims still hoped the court would uphold the lawsuit. Lawyers argued that the agreement was not approved by enough parliamentarians to pardon accused criminals. On Thursday, IHH, the Turkish humanitarian organization that helped organize the flotilla, said on its Facebook page that it still expected "a fair and proper trial free of political pressure."
