Israel has announced it will co-operate with a UN investigation into its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. Until now Israel had declined to take part in the inquiry and had set up its own investigation into the raid.
The flotilla was made up of six ships, crewed by civilians from a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by breaking a blockade on ships entering Gaza. The ships were raided in international waters by Israeli commandos and nine Turkish citizens, including one young Turkish American, were killed on the MV Mavi Marmara.
The four-member panel, announced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, will include an Israeli and a Turkish member. It will be led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, beginning work on 10 August. Mr. Ban called the panel an "unprecedented development,” made possible by last minute talks with the leaders of both Israel and Turkey and said that he hoped that “today's agreement will impact positively on the relationship between Turkey and Israel as well as the overall situation in the Middle East." Turkish government sources called the committee “an important step in remedying the injustice Turkey has encountered in the raid.”
