MORE ISRAELI ATROCITIES AND PROPAGANDA REVEALED...AND RACHEL CORRIE

More news of eyewitnesses' account of Israeli atrocities on board the Mavi Marmara have filtered through the international media.

Israel killed more than 9, threw wounded into sea, witnesses say

Planes carrying 520 aid volunteers and nine dead bodies of activists killed by Israeli security forces on Monday returned home on Thursday, with many claiming mistreatment at the hands of Israeli military officers and other officials and additional allegations that not everyone has returned.

Activists say some people who were initially on the flotilla are missing. They are also telling stories of horror, carnage and pure barbarism at the hands of Israeli officials. In a shocking account, Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH) President Bülent Yıldırım, who returned on Thursday, said a photographer, whose first name was Cevdet, was shot in the forehead by a soldier one meter away from him. “Our Cevdet [Kılıçlar], he is a press member. He has become a martyr. All he was doing was taking pictures. They smashed his skull into pieces. We soon made out that these were real bullets they were firing. Rubber bullets also kill because you shoot at very close range, between one-and-a-half and two meters.”

Kevin Ovenden of Britain, an activist on the ship that arrived in İstanbul on Thursday, also said a man who had pointed a camera at the soldiers was shot directly through the forehead with live ammunition, with the exit wound blowing away back of his skull...

...Another witness, Yücel Köse, who was on the ship Gazze repeated Yıldırım’s allegations of missing people. “The Mavi Marmara was bombed right in front of our eyes. They threw the wounded into the water,” he said. Köse said the soldiers were upset when some of their men were held by activists aboard the Mavi Marmara...

People thrown into the sea

Activist İdris Şimşek, who also arrived on Thursday, claims that four wounded activists were thrown into the sea. Şimşek also stated that there was immense psychological pressure on the activists. Şimşek said they expected some harassment but had no inkling of what would happen, noting that they were not expecting an armed attack. He also mentioned that there were no weapons, including a small Swiss army knife that some foreign press organs claimed was on the ship. He stated, as many other activists have, that the person who was waving a white flag to surrender was shot by soldiers. He said that he saw many people lying in puddles of blood after the soldiers opened fire...

[Emphasis added]

Read the full report here.

As expected, the Israeli government is continuing its relentless media spin.

The Israeli government's media madness

For weeks the Israeli government has bombarded journalists with statements, press releases and videos - all professing that Gaza is not suffering a humanitarian crisis, there is no shortage of goods entering the Strip and even mocking the suffering of people in Gaza by recommending restaurants to visit in the coastal territory.

It also went so far as to claim those on board the Freedom Flotilla had links to al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. They showed us edited video clips of military footage supporting their version of events as to what happened onboard the Mavi Marmara -  reports that are now widely discredited by eyewitness accounts.

That is the Israeli narrative of events and it is certainly within their rights to espouse it.

But the most recent video distributed on Friday by the Israeli government press office (which belongs to the Israeli prime minister's office and is responsible for accrediting foreign journalists) is distasteful and insulting to those killed and injured on the Freedom Flotilla, and quite frankly disturbing - especially since it was made by the Jerusalem Post's deputy managing editor, Caroline Glick, who also moonlights for the American Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.

Read the full report here.

Meanwhile, the Gaza-bound vessel MV Rachel Corrie, with six Malaysians on board, is on its way. Read the Free Gaza Movement report here. May God be with them.

According to a report here, the vessel is due to arrive in Gaza at 8 am on Saturday (Gaza time). However, Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said that the ship would not be allowed to reach the blockaded area. He stated: "We shall not allow the ships to reach Gaza. Not now and not later on. We intend to direct the Rachel Corrie ship to the Ashdod port and transfer its civilian goods to Gaza following a security check." Read further reports here and here. Let's pray for their safety.

Watch the latest video updates on Witness Gaza website. Hopefully, it will show updates on the Rachel Corrie trip. You can also get updates from the Free Gaza Movement website here.