Historian Mattias Gardell told Swedish public radio Thursday upon arrival in Istanbul. “We were witnesses to premeditated murders,” Two Swedes aboard the aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces this week said they had witnessed “premeditated murder.” About 700 activists – including 400 Turks – were trying to break the Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid. The United Nations and the European Union have harshly criticized Israel after its commandos stormed the six-ship flotilla in international waters, setting off the clashes. The bodies were handed over to the victim’s relatives after the autopsies. Doğan, who held an American passport, had four bullet wounds to the head and one to the chest, according to the İHH’s Ömer Yağmur. In Diyarbakır, a condolence tent was erected in front of the Ulu Mosque for Bengi, the father of four children.Īn official from the İHH identified 19-year-old Doğan, originally from the central Turkish town of Kayseri, as the U.S. In Adana, Cumali Topçuoğlu, the brother of 54-year-old victim Çetin Topçuoğlu, said family members were happy because their brother had become a “martyr.” Photographs of Bilgen, who was a mayoral candidate from the Saadet, or Felicity, Party in the March 2009 local elections, were hung over busy streets in the eastern province of Siirt. The funeral prayer for journalist Cevdet Kılıçlar, an İHH member, will be held at the same mosque Friday.įamilies of the victims also mourned in various provinces of the country. The crowd at the funeral chanted anti-Israel slogans before and after the prayers. The coffins of Cengiz Akyüz, Ali Haydar Bengi, İbrahim Bilgen, Furkan Doğan, Cengiz Songür, Çetin Topçuoğlu, Fahri Yaldız and Necdet Yıldırım were wrapped in Turkish flags. Israel charges that the passengers on the boat attacked its soldiers, but organizers of the flotilla say Israeli forces started firing as soon as they landed on the ship.įuneral prayers for eight of the nine people killed onboard the Mavi Marmara were held at the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul on Thursday. What we have is mostly gun wounds,” Metin Doğan said in televised remarks. “The patients generally have serious injuries to their chests, abdomens and limbs. The 19 wounded activists deported from Israel also suffered from gunshot wounds, according to the chief doctor of the Ankara hospital treating them. The exact circumstances of the activists’ deaths are expected to become clear in a ballistics examination that will take about a month to complete. Forensic experts found bullet marks on all the bodies and determined that one was shot at close range. The nationalities of the victims were determined after post-mortem examinations at a forensic institute in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported. All were shot dead in the Israeli raid, according to forensic experts. The first plane contained the bodies of eight Turks and a U.S. Another plane brought 31 Greeks, three French nationals and one American to Athens. Seven planes were used to deport 527 activists to Turkey and Greece, said Israeli interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, adding that seven other activists remained in Israeli hospitals for treatment of wounds suffered during the Israeli raid.

About 1,000 people, some chanting anti-Israeli slogans, packed the city’s airport in the middle of the night to greet the planes carrying them back from Israel. Yıldırım and hundreds of other activists returned early Thursday to a hero’s welcome in Istanbul. The İHH leader also said the group would send larger convoys to end the embargo on the besieged Gaza Strip.

“Our doctors handed over to Israel 38 people who were injured, but they told us there were only 21 injured when we were returning.” There are still people who are missing,” Bülent Yıldırım, the head of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, one of the main organizers of the flotilla, told reporters at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport.

At least three activists are still missing, the group that organized the flotilla says, vowing to send larger convoys to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.Īt least three members of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was attacked by Israeli commandos are still missing, the group that organized the convoy said Thursday as funeral prayers were given for eight slain activists. Funeral prayers are held in Istanbul for eight of the nine people killed on a Gaza aid flotilla as families around the country mourn their dead.

Emanga fahri