Israel used "excessive" force and trampled international law in a raid on Gaza-bound aid ships last year that killed nine Turks, a Turkish inquiry commission says in a newly released final report.
Israeli soldiers mounted a "full-fledged and well-planned attack" on the international aid flotilla on May 31, using "excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate force" against the civilians on board, said the report, which Turkey handed over to a UN inquiry panel earlier on Friday.
It argued that "since Israel's naval 'blockade' on the Gaza Strip is unlawful, any act it performs as a function of this 'blockade' is unlawful par excellence".
Ankara now expects that the UN panel would "produce an assessment that would not hurt the conscience of the international community... (and) reflect the truth... and that afterwards Israel would acknowledge the facts," Mithat Rende, a senior Turkish diplomat, told reporters.
"The case is a critical litmus test for the international community in upholding the rule of law ... Impunity must give way to accountability," the report said.
"Israel must ... convey a public apology to Turkey and provide compensation for all damages and losses," it said, echoing Ankara's conditions for mending fences with its one-time ally.
In its own report last month, Israel's commission concluded that both the raid and the blockade of Gaza complied with international law, while acknowledging "regrettable consequences".
It said Israeli troops "encountered extreme violence" when they boarded the Mavi Marmara ferry, where all the deaths occurred, and that activists from the Turkish Islamist IHH charity used firearms against the soldiers, repeating an allegation denied by the activists.
Rende also dismissed the claim on Friday, saying: "The passengers in no way used any firearms against the Israeli forces."
He said passengers had seized three weapons from Israeli soldiers in the melee on board, but threw them into the sea.
The Turkish report said Israeli forces fired from a helicopter, killing two activists, before any soldier had landed on board, terrorising the passengers.
The activists "only exercised a lawful right of self-defence, without any firearms," it said.
Rende said five victims were shot from close range in the head, including the youngest, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan, who was first injured but still kicked before the fatal shot.
Even after the troops seized the vessel, "the passengers were beaten, kicked ... deprived of food and water, handcuffed, exposed to sun for hours," the report said, adding that "the severe abuse" of the activists continued throughout their detention in Israel.
The Turkish Mavi Marmara ferry was the biggest of the vessels in the group that attempted to break Israel's blockade on Gaza, imposed in June 2006 after Gaza militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
The UN panel investigating the raid, chaired by New Zealand former premier Geoffrey Palmer, was formed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon in August.
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