2010-06-02 06:48

Over the top

Some of the troops wielded paintball rifles -- non-lethal weapons designed to bruise, beat back and mark suspects for later arrest, but which apparently proved of limited use against activists who had the protection of life-jackets and gas masks.

"It's clear that the equipment for crowd-dispersal with which they were issued was insufficient," Israel's armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, told reporters.

There was little question of calling off the raid once the first Israelis were in the fight and vulnerable, though the navy said some commandos opted to escape by jumping overboard.

Israel said seven marines were injured, one after activists pitched him over a railing and two with gunshot wounds, possibly from backup pistols that were wrested away from them.

"A number of the fighters who understood the situation, the threat posed to their lives, reoriented themselves and simply worked with live (ammunition) weapons as soon as they came down," the marines lieutenant said.

Some experts questioned whether a police anti-riot unit might have tackled the resistance with less bloodshed.

But an Israeli Defense official said only marines were capable of the takeover 120 km (75 miles) in the choppy Mediterranean, timed for darkness to surprise the activists and deprive attendant journalists of spectacular pictures.

Barak's deputy, Matan Vilnai, brushed off the call in the best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth daily for the Defense minister's resignation. He hinted Israel had exhausted covert means of stalling the Mavi Marmara and five other vessels in a flotilla that sailed for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli campaign to isolate the Hamas Islamists who rule the Palestinian territory.

"Everything was considered. I don't want to elaborate beyond that, because the fact is there were not up to 10, or however many ships were (originally) planned," Vilnai told Israel Radio, alluding to rumors that some of the vessels had been sabotaged.

Alon Ben-David, Defense analyst for Israel's Channel 10 television, noted that video footage appears to show marines thwarted an attempt by activists to tie one of the rappelling ropes to the deck, a major threat to the hovering helicopter.

"The outcome could have been much worse," Ben-David said.