Turkish paper shows 'censored' photos of bloodied Israeli commandos
Posted : Sun, 06 Jun 2010 09:05:19 GMT
By : dpa
Category : Middle East (World)
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Istanbul - One of Turkey's largest daily newspapers Sunday published photos of bloodied Israeli commandos from last week's botched raid on a Gaza aid flotilla that the paper said had been originally censored by Israel.
The series of photos in Hurriyet show Israeli commandos beaten and bleeding on the Mavi Marmara, a cruise ship bought by a Turkish NGO that led the flotilla where nine people were killed and dozens injured during last Monday's raid.
One of the photos in the newspaper shows an injured commando being led down into the ship, while another shows two passengers standing by a door holding metal bars.
According to Hurriyet, the photos were recovered after being erased by Israeli authorities from a memory card belonging to a passenger.
A statement released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the "published pictures serve as clear and unequivocal proof of Israel's repeated arguments that aboard (the Mavi Marmara) were mercenaries who intended to kill Israeli soldiers."
"The photos would have looked different if the soldiers had chosen to shoot every citizen that came their way," the statement said.
The flotilla incident has led to a crisis in the relationship between Turkey and Israel, once close allies, with Turkish officials threatening to review or even cut diplomatic ties.
Turkish officials have also called for Israel to apologize for the incident, something Jerusalem has said it will not do.
Turkish paper shows 'censored' photos of bloodied Israeli commandos | Earth Times News