Mavi Marmara

  Rain of bullets and bombs outside the small house in the middle of the holy land Gaza had put the life of two youngsters inside the house at very high risk. They had used to the extreme fear but at that time what they could only thought of was to run for help. On April 2009, the two boys became refugees when they finally managed to escape to Amman, Jordan. Accompanied by hunger and torn dirty yet bloody cloth, everyone would apparently recognize them. Fortunately, the first person whom they exactly encountered after almost a year of ‘self- smuggling ’ was a pious Turkish man.

 The Turkish man made a phone call to the head of IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation (a Turkish NGO) on early April 2010. The phone call was appreciated with positive response although the organization should become sedentary for a while as on January 2010, American had accused them for being actively supporting terrorists, Al Qaeda. Owning three flotilla ships, they plan to lead a convoy carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials which at the same time breaching the blockade of the Gaza strip. On May 2010, the flotillas with three other civilian ships lead by the flagship Mavi Marmara sailed from Istanbul harbor towards Gaza. There are 663 activist from 37 nations rendezvoused near Cyprus were on board for Gaza.

 On 31^st May 2010, Israel government detected the movement of flotillas in international waters in Mediterranean Sea. Worse thing happened when there was actually a military operation against them called Gaza Flotilla raid. Israel sent speedboats and helicopters to force the all six ships to the Israel port of Ashdoq for inspection. The IHH activists knew it was a plan to stop the help. The Israel was so cruel. They already investigated who were on board and most of the IHH activist were in Mavi Marmara. Israel sent Shayetet 13 (Israel naval forces) commando with his team to attacked Mavi Marmara passengers. 

 “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!” the name of Allah filled the entire attacked scene on Mavi Marmara. The passengers on Mavi Marmara fought back against Shayetet 13 and put resistance to the operation. However, Israel was occupied with guns and knife that they had killed nine of IHH activists in the flagship and wounded dozen other. The entire atmosphere was dark and gloomy. The ships were brought to inspection and Israel celebrated the killings and cruelty. The activists were subsequently arrested and detained in Israel before being deported.

  The news on the attack spread not only to Amman but the whole world, the two boys could not hold their breath anymore, thinking about their friends in Gaza and the people who were killed. Widespread international condemnation of the raid followed, Israel-Turkey relations were strained. Israel subsequently eased its blockade of the Gaza strip, and Egypt lifted its blockade, opening its Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip.

( Just simply make it to give a slight view about the attack five years ago. The two boys are not actually exist in real life… however,I believe  there are thousands of children like them in Gaza to be real. )