Lack of Info on Indonesian Victims in Gaza Mission

Jakarta (News Today) - The Indonesian Foreign Ministry could not yet confirm whether voluntary workers killed by Israeli troops on board a six-ship Palestinian aid convoy sailing to the Gaza Strip on Monday were really Indonesian nationals or not. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Tenku Faizasyah, when contacted by phone on Monday, said that his side was still in the process of getting more information from reliable resources in order to let the public know about the names of victims.

The foreign ministry would make public all information on the matter after getting it from reliable sources, he said. Israeli warships ships attacked one of the six ships of a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza on Monday. Two people were killed and 30 others injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, Cihan News Agency reported that some Israeli televisions claimed that the number of deaths reached had reached 16. IHH, a Turkish humanitarian relief organization which organized the aid mission , said in a statement posted on its web-site that Israeli troops boarded the ship from a helicopter and opened fire.

CNN Turk television in Turkey reported that two people had been killed and 30 wounded. The convoy, led by a Turkish vessel with 600 people on board, set off in international waters off Cyprus on Sunday in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade of the Gaza Strip and warnings that it would be intercepted.

The flotilla was organized by pro-Palestinian groups and a Turkish human rights organization. Turkey had urged Israel to allow it safe passage and said the 10,000 tonnes of aid the convoy was carrying was humanitarian. Israel had said it would prevent the convoy from reaching the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas group.

Israel and Egypt tightened a blockade on Gaza after Hamas took over the territory in 2007. Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza in December 2008 with the aim of halting daily rocket fire towards its cities. Most of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza rely on aid, blaming Israel for imposing restrictions on the amount and type of goods it allows into the territory.

The United Nations and Western powers have urged Israel to ease its restrictions to prevent a humanitarian crisis. They have been urging Israel to let in concrete and steel to allow for postwar reconstruction. Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying food, medicine and medical equipment are allowed in regularly.

It says the restrictions are necessary to prevent weapons and materials that could be used to make them from reaching Hamas. Turkish police were reported to have blocked dozens of stone-throwing protesters who tried to storm the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul over reports of an Israeli attack on at least one aid ship in international waters on Monday.

Angry protesters scuffling with Turkish police guarding the consulate in Istanbul’s Levent district. The number of protestors is rising hour by hour in front of the Israeli consulate office in Istambul.

Source : kompas.com

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