JERUSALEM: An Israeli inquiry cleared the government and military on Sunday of wrongdoing in the bloody seizure of a Turkish aid ship that tried to breach the Gaza blockade, saying passengers were to blame for the violence. The Turkel Commission, whose report will form the core of Israel's submission to a UN inquiry into the May 31 incident, endorsed the sea closure but urged Israeli reviews of how to focus sanctions on Gaza's Hamas rulers and spare its civilians. The findings were unlikely to be welcomed by Turkey, nine of whose citizens were killed by Israeli commandos' gunfire in brawls aboard the converted cruise ship Mavi Marmara as it led a six-vessel flotilla toward Gaza on the Mediterranean high seas. Once-strong ties between Turkey and the Jewish state have foundered, with Ankara demanding a formal apology and compensation for the dead and wounded. Israel has refused. The Turkel Commission said the Gaza blockade was justified given the threat to gun-running to Hamas and Israel's efforts to maintain humanitarian supplies to ordinary Palestinians there. "Even if the naval blockade ... had been considered not to meet the requirements of international law, individuals or groups do not have the right to take the law into their own hands and breach the blockade," the 245-page report said, referring to pro-Palestinian activists behind the flotilla. Marines who boarded the Mavi Marmara from helicopters and dinghies used sound tactics, resorting to live fire when passengers threatened their lives, the report said, echoing the conclusions of an Israeli military inquiry from July.
