moon Monday announced a four-member panel, including an Israeli and a Turk, to probe Israel's deadly raid in May on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The panel, chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer and with outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice chairman, will begin work August 10 and submit a first progress report by mid-September. Israel has until now rejected calls for an international independent investigation into the commando raid, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead, and instead launched two internal inquiries. Ban thanked the leaders of Israel and Turkey “for their spirit of compromise and forward-looking cooperation” which made possible what he called “an unprecedented development.” “I hope that today's agreement will impact positively on the relationship between Turkey and Israel as well as the overall situation in the Middle East,” he added. Ban said the panel would give him recommendations “for the prevention of similar incidents in the future.” Ankara has urged the Jewish state to apologize, compensate the families of the victims and lift the blockade of Gaza to repair the relations.
