JERUSALEM, June 15 (UPI) -- A top Israeli naval officer says the military will assume ships trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza have troublemakers on board.
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported two Iranian ships will head for Gaza next week.
"I recommend that humanitarian activists who are planning on participating in these new flotillas think very hard because they cannot know who is on these ships," Rear Adm. Rani Ben-Yehuda told The Jerusalem Post Monday. "We believe that there will be groups that will try to cause provocations and repeat what happened on the Marmara."
Nine men, all of them Turkish nationals, including one with dual U.S. citizenship, were killed when Israeli commandos boarded a convoy of six vessels. All the deaths were on one ship.
Ben-Yehuda, the deputy commander of the navy, said Israel has discovered "dozens" of people on the ships have ties to terrorist organizations. He said Israel has received no information anyone on the Iranian ships will be armed.
