Israeli commandos on Monday stormed six ships carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on an aid mission to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, the Associated Press reported. A reporter on one of the boats said the Israelis fired at the vessel before boarding it. The activists were headed to Gaza on a mission meant to draw attention to a 3-year-old Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. «It's disgusting that they have come on board and attacked civilians. We are civilians,» said Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza movement, which organized the flotilla. Speaking from the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus, she said she had lost contact with the flotilla at about 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT). Israel had declared it would not allow the ships to reach Gaza and had offered to transfer the aid to Gaza from an Israeli port. Israeli naval commandos raided the ships while they were in international waters after ordering them to stop about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Gaza's coast, according to a pro-Palestinian activist in Greece involved in the aid mission. A Turkish website showed video of pandemonium on board one of the ships, with activists in orange life jackets running around as some tried to help an activist apparently unconscious on the deck. The site also showed video of an Israeli helicopter flying overhead and Israeli warships nearby. The al-Jazeera satellite channel reported by telephone from the Turkish ship leading the flotilla that Israeli navy forces fired at the ship and boarded it, wounding the captain. «These savages are killing people here, please help,» a Turkish television reporter said. The broadcast ended with a voice shouting in Hebrew, «Everybody shut up!» The ships were being towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod. There were no details on the identities of the casualties, or on the conditions of some of the more prominent people on board, including 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, European legislators and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, 85. Satellite phones on board the ships were turned off. The Free Gaza Movement is an international group of pro-Palestinian activists that claims the blockade is unjust and a violation of international law. Organizers included people affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement and a pro-Palestinian group.
