Jerusalem – In the first interview since he was wounded in Monday’s raid on the flotilla, Captain R, who commanded the troops who boarded the Marmara via helicopter, spoke of the battle that took place on vessel.
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According to R, hundreds of people who were on the boat took part in attacking him and his soldiers and they were forced to use weapons because of danger to their lives.
“Dozens of people beat each soldier on the roof (of the vessel),” he said from his bed in the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
“They wielded clubs, axes and knives,” he said. “I was the second to go down the cable, one of the guys from my group was already down there, and there were a few people on him. At first it was one-on-one, until more soldiers came down.”
Regarding the troops’ preparation for a more extreme scenario on the decks, R said they had prepared for both passive and violent resistance, but admitted he had been surprised by the strength of the resistance.
“We knew they were peace activists,” he said. “Though they wanted to break the Gaza blockade, we thought we’d encounter passive resistance, perhaps verbal resistance – we didn’t expect this. Everyone wanted to kill us. We encountered terrorists who wanted to kill us and we did everything we could to prevent unnecessary injury.”
R said that some 75% of the people in the vessel resisted violently, “each one with a knife in his hand.”
‘We jumped into the water’
R. was the soldier who was thrown from the deck, as shown in the footage distributed by the IDF. “I was in front of a number of people with knives and clubs. I cocked my weapon when I saw that one was coming towards me with a knife drawn and I fired once. Then another 20 people came at me from all directions and threw me down to the deck below.”
“Then I felt a stabbing in my stomach. It was a knife. I got the knife out, then somehow got down to the lower deck where there were more people. This was when the soldiers had got control of all the boat except the lower deck. Me and another soldier managed to get to the deck, and we jumped into the water, from where our forces collected us. Another soldier who was beaten hard lost consciousness. Other soldiers covered him until we managed to get him out.”
According to the results, R said, it was a successful operation.
“I think we worked excellently,” he said. “We applied all the things we learned and drilled, including purity of arms. We acted only against those who endangered us, and we had to fire at them.”
Meanwhile, six soldiers are still hospitalized but their condition is improving. In addition, 33 foreign nationals who took part in the flotilla are also hospitalized. Most of the participants were from Turkey, and the rest from England, Australia, Indonesia and the Palestinian Authority.
And every “peace” activist who was detained should be held in prison until a trial. When convicted, they should never again see the light of day. None of them should have any visits from family. None should be treated any better than Shalit. If we don’t show them we mean business, they’ll just do it again. We need to fight terror with at least equivalent firepower. No “talks” with enemies who want nothing other than our demise. I don’t care if these “talks” are direct or not. None. If you attack us, we’ll wipe you out. Maybe some show of force will have positive results.
These footages should be broadcast all over the Internet – on youtube, aljazeera, etc. etc. – also it should be sent around the world via email.
Vayme moshe Calem
Does he really expect people to feel sorry for the Israeli soldiers and see them as innocent victims?? Cut it out……..This is very funny……..
The soldiers performed admirably under diffcult circumstances. Its the politicians and commanders who deserve the blame for placing them in such a difficult situation.
These footages should be sent to Fox, CBS, and Ch4, CH7 etc. Otherwise the world will continue to condemn Israel.
So far I have not heard a single explanation why Israel had the right to board the ships in international waters. Had the same thing occured inside Gaza territorial waters it would have been much easier to justify.
I think the Isrealis better develop new tactics at how to divert a ship without boarding it. Perhaps using tug boats and underwater cables attached to the ships. They can expect to be flooded with blockade busters in the near future.
Isreal should have torpedoed the sucker!
peace activists…………wielding kinives….
isnt it ironic…..
What an unbelievably brave man!
Could you imagine jumping onto the ship even after seeing what awaited him from these bloodthirsty jackals?
Just mine the waters and be done with it.
The operation seems to have been a foolish blunder that handed Hamas a great PR victory. Did they think they’d be showered with flowers?
The operation was legal and the actions of the soldiers were appropriate. The wisdom of the operation, and if it could have been planned better, is an open question.
“We knew they were peace activists,” he said.
How silly to have thought that they are peace activists. Those on these ships would be the first to dance when Jewish blood is shed. They are no peace activists but terrorists. Anyone who aids terrorists are themselves terrorists, and I wonder why Israel went with kid gloves. Imagine if they would try to run a blockade that the Russians put up, or a blockade put up by any country in the world. There is no question that they would have sunk the ships and let all of them perish. On these ships there was not one innocent man and Israel should have sunk them Lemaan Yishmeyu Veyeirohu.
Someone asked what right Israel has to board these ships. The answer is that when your country is in a state of war and you are trying to protect your citizens from being murdered daily, and someone declares their intention of helping those intent on harming you, then Israel didn’t only have the right, but the obligation to board these ships. They had no right of not boarding them. Israel’s obligation is to protect its citizens, not to protect terrorists masquerading as peace activists.
Israel should have sunk those ships with no apologies.
Tis story is so obvious. The video is circukating all over the world. Yet, the world (even normal countries such as the US and Great Britian) is unable to come out in full force and defend us. I am a young man, not a baby boomer, and have always been reluctant to believe the stories of European anti semitism, which, thank G-d, I have not lived to see. But, I don;’t have any other explanation fo this phenomenon other than pure anti Jewish bias. It is scary…
Next time if it happens again(another ship is underway)they should spread out big nets or deactivate the ships engine propellor.
Guys, wake up! Nobody cares, no country in the world cares to see the facts when it comes to Israel. The world hated Israel (Jews) before Israel became a state and nothing changed since then. So, all we can do is pray and work more on Ahavas Yisroel even on those Jews that don’t wear the same type of Yarmulka like you.
I heard a gentleman on the Steve Maltzberg shoe on 710 …WOR radio AM , N.Y. that it was Ehud Barak who planned out this weak and botched response to the flotilla. He is an appeasenick who is hurting Israel. Anyone heard the show today?