My, what a lot of sound and fury in this thread. I will presume that a state of belligerency exists between Gaza/Hamas and Israel, which has not been resolved via peace treaty. Sort of like the cease fire between the Koreas, at best. So, a blockade is what is underway, between two belligerents, one denying the other sea commerce except for restricted humanitarian stuff, per the UN articles on such things, custom, rules of war, etcetera.
It is a blockade in fact, made moreso by its enforecment.
Running a blockade is a risky proposition. A well applied blockade is difficult and dangerous to run.
The five ship captains who chose the more patient method, get inspected "over htere" and proceed, will do as well as the legitimate merchants who were dealing with the NATO/WEU/UN embargo in the Adriatic 1993-1996.
The group of numbnuts who decided to try otherwise got precisely what they deserved, and as I read this, precisely what their leadership desired.
Aside: You will note that the Serbs, to include the fun and games during the Lido II incident, were smarter than this particular group of activists.
Or were they?
The Serbs didn't have friendly media supporting them, and they didn't have Twitter, nor twits who bought their line of rubbish and thuggery.
This group did. This play was political, as I see it, and the fracas was deliberately provoked with the intent of shooting a few rounds in the information/propaganda war.
*shrugs*
Another day of fun in the the Eastern Med. Twenty or so years ago, it was the Lebanese killing one another off with mind numbing regularity, now the Pals and Israelis have chosen to take center stage, and some other clowns want to get into the act.
So be it, these folks are now part of the act. This stage play include shootings by guns that aren't loaded with blanks.
DR
Honestly they weren't worth answering. The captains of the ships were repeatedly told that they'd be stopped if they tried to run the blockage, they were given the option of having their cargos checked and delivered. They chose to continue knowing it would create a confrontation.
Five of the ships boarded didn't resist and nothing happened on them other than that they were redirected to the port they had previously been told to go to. The Israelis have said that they'll check the cargo and see that it's delivered.
The crew of one ship resisted, attacking the boarders as they come on board, taking their weapons off them, throwing them off the top deck to the lower one, and using the taken handguns, a rifle that was onboard, slingshots loaded with marbles, knives, stun grenades, firebombs, and pipes against them.
Since the activists never gave the Israelis the chance to do anything before attacking them, does it matter if they knew that they were armed with Paintball rifles or not?
Should the Israelis stood there and done nothing when faced with that sort of attack from supposed "peace" activists?
I'd note here that US boarding parties in the Gulf and off Somalia are authorised to use deadly force if attacked while boarding, and have done so when required, even killing people who have resisted boarding. Why are Israeli forces to be denyed the same right to self defence when they conduct boarding operations during a blockade against a state they are at war with?
