Operation "Barbarossa", 2 extremes equalizing each other out. Mind you, if that had been Royal Marines or US Special Forces being attacked with metal bars, we'd have been behind them 100%. You attack an armed soldier with a metal bar, after several previous warnings, you fucking deserve to get your head blown off.

They fired on the ship before they landed; then the ship put out a white flag.
After that, they continued firing on the ship, then they bordered.
Those guys saw people being shot at, and killed, around them; they assumed they'd have to fight for their life.


Just found this and have to disagree with you fellah.

[link to www.abc.net.au]

"""We did not expect such resistance from the group's activists as we were talking about a humanitarian aid group," the boarding party's commander, an unnamed naval lieutenant who received special permission to be interviewed, told Army Radio.

"The outcome was different to what we thought, but I must say that this was mainly because of the inappropriate behaviour of the adversary we encountered."

Jason Alderwick, a maritime warfare expert at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, faulted the marines for not commandeering the vessel more efficiently.

"Success begins with planning and with decent intelligence, and they have boarded such ships before," he said.

"This time they didn't go in hard enough, fast enough and in sufficient numbers to establish overwhelming control."

Some of the troops wielded paintball rifles - non-lethal weapons designed to bruise, beat back and mark suspects for later arrest, but which apparently proved of limited use against activists who had the protection of life-jackets and gas masks.

"It's clear that the equipment for crowd-dispersal with which they were issued was insufficient," Israel's armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, told reporters.

An Israeli journalist and editor for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, Gideon Levy, has told ABC's PM program the incident is an indication of Israeli defence incompetence.

"All the evidences are very clear. They came there hardly with weapons. They really were expecting - in a very stupid way - that they will get into their ships and will be welcomed with coffee and cake," he said.

"I'm sure and deeply convinced that this was not the intention to kill those activists. But you judge things according to their outcome, not only according to the intentions."

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given his full backing to the military operation and says Israel's policy of closing Gaza's freight crossings will continue.

Night raids

A day after the pre-dawn operation some 120 kilometres out in the Mediterranean, details were sketchy and limited to those from the Israeli side. Activists were incommunicado.

Israel puts the blame for the deaths on the organisers of the aid flotilla, saying its soldiers were attacked by a lynch mob, some of whom were armed with clubs and knives.

Aerial footage released by Israel appears to show commandos being attacked as they abseil onto the deck of the ship. Some Israeli commentators asked why commanders put troops into a position where they were cornered.

But reports from on board the ship say the Israeli soldiers began firing first and that activists were waving white flags.""

Is there any video or evidence to confirm that they were previously shot at? I've seen the other video evidence of the activists and to me they looked a pretty bloodthirsty bunch the way they jumped on the soldiers and the savagery of the beating.