The Wire

The international community has decried the killing of nine civilians in an Israeli navy assault on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. At least 60 others were injured in what the Turkish Prime Minister has called an act of ‘inhumane state terrorism.’ The six-vessel fleet carried civilians from roughly 50 countries and they were attacked at night in international waters, 70 miles from the Israeli coast. They were en route to breach the blockade of Gaza that’s been in operation since the election of Hamas three years ago. Critics have said Israeli efforts to spin the incident reveal a belief in entitlement to act with impunity. Outrage over these deaths may begin to undo this state of thinking.