Turkey is dismayed over an Israeli investigation panel’s attempt at rationalizing Tel Aviv’s deadly strike on the Gaza-bound convoy, Freedom Flotilla.

Ankara said it was “appalled and dismayed” at the Israeli panel’s findings, which had called both the assault and Tel Aviv’s siege of the Gaza Strip ‘legal.’

Israeli commandos attacked the convoy in international waters on May 31 of last year, killing nine Turkish activists and injuring about 50 others.

The fleet was carrying around 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies for Gaza, which came under the tight land, naval and aerial blockade in mid-June 2007. The restrictions have been depriving 1.5-million Palestinians in the sliver of food, fuel, medicine and other necessities.

The activists, who survived the attack, were subsequently expelled and the cargos transferred to the Israeli port of Ashdod in the south of Tel Aviv.

Much of the international community united in expressing outrage over the incident and a United Nations inquiry found — by complete contrast — that the forces had shown “an unacceptable level of brutality.”

Headed by former Israeli judge Yaakov Turkel, however, the six-member committee concluded that the flotilla attack and the Gaza siege were both "legal pursuant to the rules of international law," AFP reported.

(Press TV)