Aid activists treated wounded commandos while comrades were on killing spree

Eyewitness accounts of Israel’s assault on the aid ship Mavi Marmara are emerging which give a very different picture to the official Israeli version of events. Survivors of the assault on the largest ship in the Freedom Flotilla have said that wounded Israeli commandos were being treated in the ship’s hospital as their colleagues continued their killing spree on the decks above.

Speaking to the Turkish media after flying home from Occupied Palestine, Necmettin Sekero?lu, from Kilis in southern Turkey, said that the passengers captured three Israeli soldiers and brought them into his clinic for treatment. The commandos were, he said, clearly scared as they were incontinent: “We treated them and then sent back on deck for their helicopter to take them off the ship.”

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Asked what he felt as he treated the commandos Mr Sekero?lu said that he had been told that his friends were being killed on deck, but he carried on treating the soldiers. “They thanked us in English after their treatment,” he said, “but it was difficult to treat them while our friends were being killed.” He added, “Killing wounded soldiers is not only against our religion and sense of compassion taught by our predecessors, but would also not serve the cause of the humanitarian mission.”

The Turkish media has published pictures of the captured Israeli commandos taken by the passengers on the Mavi Marmara. Photos recovered from memory cards that the Israeli authorities thought had been erased show some soldiers being treated on board the ship. The pictures have not been circulated by the Israeli authorities in case they damage the myth that the Israel Defence Force is “undefeated”.