The Turks have released details from their own report into what happened when Israel seized one of their ships loaded with aid bound for Gaza last May.
Ankara had already condemned Israel’s report, published 24 hours earlier, as a whitewash. Turkey submitted its findings last September to the UN investigation into the incident. Israel has yet to do the same.
“In this report we established that unfortunately the Israeli forces started firing at the passengers on the upper deck from the helicopters before landing on the upper deck,” said Ambassador Mithat Rende, the chairman of the National Investigation Committee.
On Sunday, Israel’s Turkel commission cleared the government and armed forces of any wrongdoing, and insisted the action was legal and justified. It concluded no live rounds were fired from the air.
The dispute has shredded relations between the once-close allies. The Turkish charity that tried to break the Gaza blockade says it will sail again this summer.