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(AFP Photo)
Turkish warships will escort the country's aid vessels bound for the Gaza Strip, protecting them from Israeli ships, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Thursday.
Turkish lawyer submits list of Israeli flotilla raiders
A lawyer for a Turkish Islamic group said Friday he had submitted to prosecutors a list of Israeli soldiers involved in a deadly raid on a flotilla sent by the group to break the Gaza blockade.
"We have presented a list of Israeli soldiers who gave the order for and who were involved in the attack on the Turkish flotilla to the Istanbul prosecutor's office," Ramazan Ariturk, the lawyer for the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) which organized the ill-fated flotilla, told AFP.
"Currently we are waiting for the prosecutor's office to issue an order for arrest," he said.
Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed when Israeli commandos boarded the flag ship of the six-boat flotilla on May 31 last year, to stop it from breaking Israel's blockade on Gaza.
A UN report accused Israel of acting with "excessive force" in the operation. But it endorsed the legality of Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, which the Jewish state says is necessary to prevent the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the coastal enclave, from obtaining weapons.
The lawyer said the list was based on the testimonies of Israeli soldiers included in Israel's report on the incident submitted to the United Nations.
"Some Israeli soldiers who regretted what happened reached me and gave some of the soldiers identities", added the lawyer, explaining that those soldiers were not involved in the clash but merely observers.
Ariturk declined to give the exact number of Israeli soldiers who were included in the list but said there were more than 10.
The killing of nine people on the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of the convoy taking aid to Gaza, sparked widespread outrage and further deteriorated Turkey's ties with Israel.
Ankara last week expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended all military agreements with Israel, in respond to this country's refusal to apologize for the killings.
Warships to Gaza threat 'grave': Israel
Israeli Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor on Friday described as "grave and serious" a threat by the Turkish prime minister to send warships to escort any aid vessels trying to reach the Gaza Strip.
"These remarks are grave and serious, but we have no wish to add to the polemic," Meridor said on army radio.
"It is better to stay quiet and wait -- we have no interest in aggravating the situation by replying to such (verbal) attacks," he said.
Late on Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish warships would escort any aid ships trying to reach Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in a bid to protect them from Israeli forces.
"Turkish warships will be tasked with protecting the Turkish boats bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip," Erdogan told Al Jazeera television, according to an Arab-language translation of his comments in Turkish.
"From now on, we will no longer allow these boats to be the targets of attacks by Israel, like the one on the Freedom Flotilla, because then Israel will have to deal with an appropriate response," he warned.
Erdogan was referring to the clash on May 31 last year when Israeli commandos stormed a six-ship flotilla in international waters in a bid to stop it from breaching its naval blockade on Gaza.
During the ensuing confrontation, Israeli troops killed nine Turks on board a Turkish ferry, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries that has strained relations to breaking point.
"Turkey will be firm on its right to control the territorial waters in the east of the Mediterranean," Erdogan added.
Ankara had also "undertaken measures to prevent Israel unilaterally exploiting" the region's natural resources, he warned, referring to offshore gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean.
Meridor said Turkey "would be violating international law" if it tried to break Israel's blockade on Gaza by force.
A UN report into the flotilla incident which was published last week declared the naval embargo to be legal, although it chastised Israel for using excessive force in the raid.
Ankara expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended all military ties, including defence-related trade contracts, in retaliation for Israel's refusal to apologise for the raid.
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