Gaza activists 'sought clash' Israeli version supported by CC footage, Frattini says

(ANSA) - Rome, June 9 - Activists involved in last week's deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza aid flotilla appear from closed-circuit camera footage to have "deliberately sought the clash," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.Frattini said audio-visual material showed activists getting ready to repel an assault."Some of the activists on board were putting on bullet-proof vests and gas masks and tooling up with various weapons including iron tubes cut from the ship using buzz saws purposely brought on board," the foreign minister told the Senate."They then split up into teams to isolate and hit as many Israeli soldiers as possible as soon as the assault was launched".Israel has consistently maintained that its soldiers acted in self-defence in firing on activists armed with knives and bars, killing eight Turks and a Turkish-American aboard the flagship. Activists have said the commandoes attacked without provocation.Frattini underscored that the full activists' version of events "must be established"."For now we only know the (version) the Israelis have put out"."The events that happened on board the ship in those convulsed, tragic moments must be carefully established". ISRAEL 'MUST CONDUCT PROBE, WITH QUARTET AS OBSERVER'.A probe into the episode must be left to Israel but the Middle East Quartet should be allowed to take part too, Frattini added.Italy was confident, he said, that Israel would be able to meet the UN Security Council's criteria for the inquiry.Frattini said he was sure the inquiry would be "impartial, serious transparent and independent".Like the US, Italy believed it was not right to take the probe out of the hands of Israel, a "democratic and sovereign state", also to avoid the polemics that ensued after the independent Gladstone Report into the three-week 2008-2009 Gaza War which accused both Israel and, to a lesser extent, Palestinian militants, of war crimes.Frattini said Italy had voted against an international, non-Israeli, probe in the interests of peace.He said Italy's No vote on the United Nations Human Rights Council a week ago "was not against or in favour of anyone"."It was a vote that derived from an objective assessment in favour of peace," the foreign minister told the Senate.Frattini stressed there should be "an international component" in Israel's probe into the incident.Italy, Britain and France are pushing for the Middle East Quartet - United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia - to have some form of representation in the inquiry.At the UN rights council, Italy voted with the United States and Netherlands against a resolution proposed by the Palestinians, Sudan and Pakistan, unlike most European countries which abstained.The non-binding resolution was carried by 32 votes to 47.