Global General

Turkish activist planes land Istanbul

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-03 09:53

Activists who were seized during a raid on an aid convoy sailing to Gaza, flash victory signs upon their arrival at Ataturk International airport in Istanbul early June 3, 2010. [Agencies]

ISTANBUL - Hundreds of activists deported from Israel following a bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla by Israeli soldiers  returned to a hero's welcome in Turkey early Thursday. Nine bodies were also on the first plane.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and several Turkish lawmakers welcomed them at the airport after Turkey pressured Israel to release the detainees, most of whom are Turkish.

Related readings:  Israel deports flotilla activists after world outcry  UN Security Council condemns Israeli raid on flotilla  Israel to expel 48 activists detained from flotilla  Israeli forces attack aid flotilla, 16 dead

"They faced barbarism and oppression but returned with pride," Arinc told hundreds of jubilant relatives and supporters who burst into applause outside the airport, chanting "God is Great!" A few thousand people also celebrated their return in downtown Istanbul.

Three air ambulance planes, carrying wounded activists, landed in Ankara earlier. NTV television said the activists who arrived in Istanbul would also undergo medical checks.

Earlier, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hotly rejected calls to lift a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Wednesday, insisting the ban prevents missile attacks on Israel and labeling worldwide criticism of his navy's bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla as "hypocrisy."

"This was not the 'Love Boat,"' Netanyahu said in an address to the nation, referring to the vessel boarded by commandos, setting off clashes that led to the deaths of nine activists. "It was a hate boat."

While Israeli officials spent most of the day trying to contain the flood of diplomatic condemnation of the raid, Netanyahu was anything but conciliatory in his first nationally broadcast comments since Monday's military action.

"Israel is facing an attack of international hypocrisy," he said, asserting that the Jewish state is the victim of an Iran-backed campaign to arm the Hamas rulers of Gaza with missiles that could hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said the aim of the flotilla was to break the blockade, not to bring aid to Gaza. If the blockade ended, he warned, hundreds of ships would bring in thousands of missiles from Iran, to be aimed at Israel and beyond.

The result, he said, would be an Iranian port on the Mediterranean. "The same countries that are criticizing us today should know that they would be targeted tomorrow," Netanyahu said.

Seven planes were being used to deport 527 activists to Turkey and Greece, Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said. Seven other activists remained in Israeli hospitals for treatment of wounds suffered during the Israeli raid, she said.

After all the planes took off, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said three activists remained in detention over "documentation and other issues," without elaborating. The three were from Ireland, Australia and Italy.

About a dozen female activists scuffled with security officers at the airport but were quickly subdued by authorities, Israeli officials said. Officials said no charges will be filed and the women were to be deported as planned.

The U.N., Europe and others harshly criticized Israel after its commandos stormed the six-ship flotilla in international waters, setting off the clashes. About 700 activists -- including 400 Turks -- were trying to break the Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade of the Gaza Strip by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid.

Turkey's parliament urged its government to review all ties with Israel as the country prepared to welcome home Turkish activists who had been detained after the raid.

Israel rejects claims that Gaza -- which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group seized power in 2007 -- is experiencing a humanitarian crisis. Israel says it allows more than enough food, medicine and supplies into the territory.

As Netanyahu rebuffed calls to lift the blockade, Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog indicated Israel would oppose calls from the U.N. and others for an independent investigation of the raid.

"We are the last nation (that) you can say doesn't check itself," he told The Associated Press, while acknowledging that Israel was facing serious diplomatic trouble. "We are trying to take full control of this crisis management and move forward."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the US is "working to improve the humanitarian conditions" in Gaza, but he also stressed the Obama administration was "greatly supportive" of Israel's security and "that's not going to change."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also did not call for an end to the blockade, but she pressed Israel to allow greater access to humanitarian relief supplies.