BICOM

The Israeli security cabinet yesterday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to ‘act resolutely’ to enforce Israeli naval policy regarding Gaza, by stopping the flotilla which is set to sail from Greece in the coming days. The cabinet also, however, said that the IDF should ‘avoid friction’ with flotilla participants wherever possible. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli and international journalists would be embedded on Israeli naval vessels, in order to allow free coverage of actions taken to prevent the flotilla from reaching Hamas-ruled Gaza. The authorities also reversed an earlier announcement according to which journalists boarding the flotilla vessels would be banned from working in Israel for ten years.

In a significant new development, Israeli officials, in a press briefing yesterday, said that information obtained by Israel indicated that some flotilla participants are planning to carry out violent attacks against Israeli troops. The officials said that a number of chemical substances, including sulfur, were being carried on some of the vessels participating in the flotilla, and that they are intended to be used against soldiers if they attempt to board the vessels. A spokesperson for the Flotilla denied the information obtained by IDF officials, stating that all the participants were made to sign a non-violence declaration.

However, it has emerged that members of the Turkish IHH organisation, the group that was behind the violence on the first flotilla, are on some of the ships participating in the present campaign. The Islamist IHH group had officially withdrawn from participation but it appears that individual members of the group are on board some of the ships.

The IDF has also said that there are activists on board the vessels who are connected to Hamas. Among them is Amin Abu Rashad, one of the Dutch organisers of the flotilla, who in the past headed the Hamas linked charity in Holland, which was closed after an investigation by the authorities because of its involvement in funding terrorism. Another is Mohammed Ahmed Hannoun, known to be a Hamas activist, who heads the ABSPP fund, an Italian organisation which Israel says has also been involved in the transfer of money to EU designated terrorist