Come the fuck on. When you have a military force firing automatic weapons at you, and all you have is slingshots and rods, what the fuck ELSE are you supposed to use to defend yourself? NEWSFLASH, dipshit: peace activists generally don't carry guns. If you HONESTLY think that Israel was in the right here, you deserve to be on the boat with the rest of the people getting killed you sick, sick fuck.

Calm yourself down, no need for swearing. Judging by this raw footage the initial encounter is between the rubber boat with Israelis and the lower deck. Its hard to see whats going on that lower deck unfortunately...
From 36:00 clearly it shows them using paintball guns and flashbangs which are non lethal. Accusations regarding the Israelis firing lethal rounds BEFORE they entered are 100% lies. I'm not buying the bloodstained stairs either, the guy even says they were using paintball guns. Those stains could be paint for all we know.
It wasn't until after they boarded that you can hear the real gun shots. Other footage shows that the moment the Israelis boarded they were attacked with metal bars, which does inflict a whole lot more damage than paint ball rounds.

My concern is what motivated the Israelis to use the paint ball guns, besides from the activist suddenly shouting "Allah Akbar" without any good reason whatsoever...

Interesting is the report starting from 10:30. Surely people were aware that the cargo needed to be searched on the open sea. Yet the guy states the organizers were rerouting the vessels to AVOID CONFRONTATION.
Why would you avoid the unavoidable (checking of the cargo and perhaps wanted passengers)? What kind of communication has there been between the organizers and Israelis regarding the check up? Did they try to escape or provoke? So many blanks to fill.

See days after this incident an Irish vessel (carrying goods for Gaza) disobeyed the order to sail to the capital. Israelis also boarded that ship w/o any problems and directed it to the capital. Goods were checked, loaded into trucks, send of to their destination. Noone injured, noone killed.
Make me wonder why this one had to turn out to be violent.

AnonWut, lurk more. Seriously. Did you even watch the video? Protip: Peace activists usually don't carry any form of weapon, and the Israelis wouldn't have started shooting if the peace activists in this case had been peaceful. That's true even if you disagree with the decision to board the ships.
Peace activism: You're doing it wrong.

I think the organisors wanted to avoid a confrontation during night time first and foremost, and thus turned the vessels around. They felt a day time confrontation would be less stressing/frightening or in some other way preferable for them.

Secondly, aid ships to Gaza have been let through the blockade at times in the past, so I do not think they were 100% certain to be boarded, and even in a search situation, it would surely not be necessary to drop elite military in the middle of the night, you do not need that military to perform a peacful search.

Now, putting on the cynical cap, if the Israeils would have say waited to daytime, then approached with a smaller civil search crew backed up by the military, and entered the ship in such a manner, an eventual confrontation would be in their PR favour instead, because it would show peaceful controllants being attacked by activists at least armed with metal rods, slingshots etc or whatever the reaction on the ship would be. I doubt it would be the same though.
Just a general feeling I get that the Israeli wanted to go in hard (not as in killing, but as in extremely overpowering) on the ship to statuate an example. And it backfired enormously.

Don't you get the feeling the boarding of 6 ships by one of the worlds most advanced military forces could have been done in a smoother way - disregarding politics and affiliation? Sure - a small portion of the activits were armed - with metals rods and slingshots. The gap in power is enormous.

But if the entire legality of the operaiton on international water was disputed - which is the least we can say - then as much as the Israeli army felt their need and right to board the ship, as much did the activists felt they had the right and need to defend the same ship.

The only things we know for sure is that the Israeils boarded the ship and that the activists responded with violent resistance. The outcome could ever only be one as the violence spiralled seeing the disproportionate power distribution.
I'm sure both sides would define the other as aggressor, but that doesn't change the outcome or the power balance.

What does "Allahu Akbar" to do with everything. It's not a phrase of terror the same way, Shalom is not a word of terror.

Otherwise the paint guns on the zodiac were just a tactical decision of the IDF. They knew that they would've been filmed so paint guns are a well-thought tactical decision. That flashbombs and paint guns are non-lethal, why the hell did 9 people die?

Pirates deserve to be fight against, and IDF soldiers were the pirates.

Exactly...what does it have to do anything...why would they shout it then? Just provocation if you'd ask me.

Indeed initially they used non-lethal means. However when they entered and got attacked with metal crowbars and pipes (which can inflict a lot more damage than a paintball gun) the IDF decided to switch to more lethal means.
I can't blame them considering the fact the IHH was involved in the convoy.

Brian, interesting thoughts you have. Your opinion sounds very biased, possibly indicating that you're pro-Israel's foreign policy, or just plain barbaric. Do you not think that these Israeli forces could have subdued these "attackers with metal rods" effectively with the paint guns, instead of the automatic weapons, resulting in killing them? If they intended to subdue the attackers, so as to tie them up and charge them let's say for attacking, they could have done that with paint guns; they did not need to use lethal force. I dont recall hearing "paint guns" going off - I hear automatic weapons in the background of these videos. Do you know the difference, yourself? It bothers me that people are supporting the unlawful killing of civilians - we call that murder in the western world. If these civillians were criminals, and were up to no good, there were other ways to determine that, adn treat that without killing them. Don't forget that the strongest military power in the world, has access to satellite footage, that could show whether there were nukes, or other weapons on board this ship. Don't be so naiive so as to think that they dont, or that they did not check. I'd like to see that evidence. But, Israel never abides by international orders, because they are not party to any international treaty agreement. Their disregard for human life is atrocious.

Niki Kan, no, I am not pro-Israel, neither am I pro-Palestinian. I would like nothing more than for both sides to be reasonable, sit down together and work out a reasonable plan for Israeli and Palestinian states. Since I am neutral in this I can ferret out the facts the best that I can and make a, hopefully, unbiased opinion. While I'm not defending Israel, what I have seen over the years is the Palestinians attacking Israel and Israel defending itself, which is what it is doing with the blockade of Gaza. For some reason the militants in Gaza (you'll notice I used the term militants and not people, I'm sure most of the people in Gaza would rather have peace also) like to fire rockets into Israel. If Mexicans were firing rockets into the US I would raise hell with my government if they didn't do everything in their power to stop it.
If you'll listen closely to the video you will hear the paintball guns being fired. They even show in one segment what some people say is blood, but it was one of the journalists I think that said it was from the paintball guns. You don't hear gunfire until after the soldiers attempt to board the ship. And yes, I know the difference in sound between paintball guns and automatic weapons. I was in the military for 20 years. The shots that you heard were not from automatic weapons, they were from semi-automatic weapons. The shots were spaced too far apart for them to be from automatic weapons.

yes Cristina i totally agree with you! i don t get it people are blind or acting like they are???innocent people has beein killed in front of their eyes by live fires just as they were in a war and they only own some slingshots to defend them selves and what 're they doin here!!! critisizin them and treat them as murdreres and criminels just because they had some sticks nd slingshots to protect them selves againt the real weapons n'guns!!! heh excuse me sir but if this kind of "weapon" scares you,so u really really must beware of me because u can t imagine what kind of weapon i do have in my kitchen hehhhh
peace