In testimony to a commission that has been investigating the bloody
Israel Navy interception of the flotilla, Barak acknowledged that foreign
ships permitted to reach the Gaza Strip over the last two years could have
been transferring military equipment to the Hamas regime. Barak said the
government, over the objection of the military, used its intelligence
community to assess whether the uninspected ships were loaded with missiles
or rockets.
"It's possible to transfer something through this — definitely, even in
a small ship with a displacement of 20-30 tons," Barak said on Aug. 10 in a
transcript released a week later. "So if they bring over there 10 tons of
rockets or war materiel or ammunition, this is a very bad thing. In the
final analysis, this was a status evaluation."
Barak said the disputed government policy was based on the assessment
that foreign allies of Hamas would eventually stop trying to send ships to
the Gaza Strip. He admitted that the Israeli permission to allow the ships
to reach the Gaza Strip merely intensified efforts.
"Over time when this phenomenon intensified, we understood that we were
not slowing it down, but by giving permission we were accelerating it,"
Barak said.
In 2008, the Israel Navy warned the government that its refusal to
inspect ships could break the siege on the Gaza Strip. In August of that
year, the Navy formally imposed a maritime closure of the Gaza Strip to stop
the flow of foreign vessels to the Hamas-controlled area. The closure also
allowed the Navy to intercept suspicious vessels up to 300 kilometers from
the Israeli coast.
"The reason for this is our need to protect ourselves from the arrival
of munitions or equipment that support combat as well as rockets and war
material," Barak said.
Despite the maritime closure, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi
kept warning the government as late as June 2009 to deny passage to ships
headed for the Gaza Strip. The military chief said these ships could be
carrying weapons, including rockets, to Hamas. By April 2010, the Israeli
intelligence community assessed that Hamas's foreign allies would intensify
the flow of ships to the Gaza Strip.
The defense minister, in office since 2007, said ships that sought to
reach the Gaza Strip were ordered to the Israeli port of Ashdod for
inspection. Barak said authorities were directed to allow civilian
humanitarian aid to travel from Ashdod over land to the Gaza Strip.
Israel has prevented dual-use products from reaching the Gaza Strip.
Barak cited steel pipes, which can be turned into mortars and rockets, as
well as fertilizer, an ingredient used in explosives.
Barak said the Israel Navy has developed techniques to intercept ships
that sought to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip. He said the Navy
operation against the Turkish flotilla in May 2010, in which nine passengers
were killed in a battle with Israeli commandos, was similar to that used in
the successful interceptions in 2009. The latest operation, he said, was
based on the assessment that the flotilla did not contain heavy weapons.
"The organizers of the flotilla, with media coverage, were preparing
themselves for a clash with Israel Defense Forces in order to embarrass
Israel, arouse global discussion on the maritime closure issue and exert
pressure on Israel to open the land crossings to the Gaza Strip," Barak
said.
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