Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a special press conference to discuss today's incident off the coast of Gaza. He said that Israel is under the threat of terror from Gaza with Iranian encouragement, and therefore Israel asks to check all goods arriving by sea.
He said, "We have to check if there are weapons on the boats in order to defend our citizens."
According to Netanyahu, the activists on the board the boat did not cooperate and attacked the commandos. He said, "The soldiers were stabbed and hit and even shot at. We regret every death but our soldiers were forced to defend themselves."
Netanyahu added, We will let in all humanitarian aid to Gaza but only after it has been examined by us. We must protect the situation whereby we prevent Iran and Hamas from bringing in raw materials for use in explosives in the Gaza Strip.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 31, 2010
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