Firstly, the bare facts. It seems that the Israelis aren’t messing around with their blockade:

At least 14 people were killed and 50 were injured early Monday as the Israeli Navy took over the ships taking part in the aid sail to Gaza, Arab and Turkish media reported.
The IDF reported that four soldiers were injured during the takeover from live ammunition and knife stabbing. One of the troops was said to be in serious condition and three in light to moderate condition. The injured were evacuated to the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer by helicopter.
According to an IDF source, “The sail’s participants were not innocent and used violence against the soldiers. They were waiting for the forces’ arrival.”

It’s been largely forgotten that it’s actually a joint blockade with the Egyptians taking part too, but that’d ruin a good dhimmi media spin. That’s also been ignored on CHome, which has a thread going spectacularly batshit crazy about the whole issue.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has issued a statement which completely puts to one side the fact that Gaza is a haven for terrorists, smugglers, gun-runners and all sorts of people you wouldn’t take home to meet your parents:

This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza, in line with UNSCR 1860. The closure is unacceptable and counter-productive. There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis. I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians.

 Aid is pretty much “unfettered” at the moment. Hamas are even taxing the importation of luxury cars brought in through the smuggling tunnels, and here burned 2 million Tramadol painkillers because the smugglers hadn’t paid an import bribe. 

What the BBC is laughably calling a “Gaza aid ship” belongs to IHH, an Islamic militant organisation. By coincidence, on board amongst all the vets, teddy-bear makers, global-warming experts and luxury car mechanics so desperately needed in Gaza, there happened to be a metric assload of random lefty MPs from various places – none of them expecting a propaganda stunt at all…no….of course not.

Israeli troops were attacked when they boarded the ship by knives and live ammunition, and Israel’s Defence Minister said they returned fire in self-defence having given the ship plenty of opportunity to dock peacefully – a statement backed up by this video.

So it’s going to turn into one of those he-said-she-said arguments:

The Israelis say that the ships refused to respond to multiple radio communications and refused to divert to the harbour at Ashkalon for cargo inspection; that their commandos were attacked with live fire, clubs, and metal rods upon boarding one of the ships; and that the commandos only fired after one of the activists grabbed a weapon from one of the commandos. Four commandos were injured. 

The Palestinians say the Israeli commandos – blood dripping from their fangs – opened fire for absolutely no reason while the activists were playing with puppies and singing “Kum Bye Yah,” killing at least 14 of them. Then, the Israelis laughed and stomped on the puppies. 

The Palestinians and their allies will be absolutely delighted by this propaganda coup. Whatever the truth is, one thing is certain… Israel will receive far more international condemnation for this than North Korea did after deliberately torpedoing a South Korean ship in South Korean waters and murdering 46 South Korean sailors.

Numerous hat-tips inline.