IDF: Some flotilla activists planning to kill soldiers

Army sources tell 'Post' some flotilla participants plan to use chemical weapons; flotilla member: Claims "are attempt to justify IDF violence."

By YAAKOV KATZ
mavi marmara flotilla_311 reuters (photo credit: Osman Orsal / Reuters)
mavi marmara flotilla_311 reuters
(photo credit: Osman Orsal / Reuters)
IDF sources said Monday night that new intelligence information obtained in recent days shows that participants of the flotilla planning to break Israel’s sea blockade over the Gaza Strip later this week plan to kill IDF soldiers who board their ships.
According to the information obtained by the IDF, some of the participants have prepared sacks with sulfur, which they plan to pour on the soldiers as they board the vessels.
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“This is a chemical weapon, and if poured on a soldier it can paralyze him,” an IDF source told The Jerusalem Post Monday night. “If the sulfur is then lit on fire, the soldier will light up like a torch.”
The information was obtained from closed meetings held by participants on the ships during which some voiced their intention to “murder Israeli soldiers,” according to the IDF.
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Click for full Jpost coverage
In response to the IDF's statements, Dror Feiler, an Israeli participant on the upcoming flotilla, told Army Radio that the claims "are an attempt to justify in advance IDF violence."
Feiler said that as long as it is up to flotilla organizers, activists planning to harm IDF soldiers will not participate in the mission.
"If Israel suspects any one, it should provide us with information so we can stop him. Violent people are not permitted to take part in the flotilla," he said.
"All of the passengers signed a pledge of non-violence, because we don't want a repeat of what happened in the last flotilla," Feiler stressed. "We have no intention of confronting anyone. We just want to arrive in Gaza in peace. Israel has no reason to stop the flotilla."
"The situation in Israel, with its army and security forces fighting a group of 20 organizations, is funny. The world does not believe it, and neither does the State of Israel itself," he said.
In related news, despite earlier predictions that members of the Turkish organization IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation would not participate in the flotilla, it now appears that some members will sail with the ships alongside other radical Islamic activists.
The Navy has begun its final preparations to stop the vessels, and the IDF sources said that commandos who board the ships will be prepared for a wide-range of scenarios from no violence at all to extreme and violent resistance from the passengers.