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Since most of us do not know anything about the way Marine Commandos use to board ships, I think it can be interesting to read the POV of some experts.
Here is the opinion of a French expert:
Le Figaro - International : Le mode opératoire des commandos de marine de Tsahal en question
- the legal side has been ignored since the boardings took place in international waters: "usually, these operations are caried out in the 12-miles limit, because the UN convention forbids boardings in international waters"
- usually, you don't send the helicopters first: "we approach close to the ships on small boats and then ask the captain of the ship to let us board. If that does not work, we attempt to board from our small boats. And only if it does not work we use the helicopters"
- then, if they are attacked, "Commandos have non-lethal ways to handle these situations: tazer, soft ammunitions...we never use real ammunitions except in case of critical situation". However, the boardings off Gaza turned into a chaos.
While there is a disagreement on the first point and that the third point is not really debatable, I think most of us could agree that it was not a smart idea to board the ship from helicopters, as it made every retreat impossible, and as a retreat could have avoided the massacre. In fact I don't understand why they have used helicopters, as the humanitarian convoy was not very fast and was still far off Gaza, there was no emergency.
Here is the opinion of a French expert:
Le Figaro - International : Le mode opératoire des commandos de marine de Tsahal en question
- the legal side has been ignored since the boardings took place in international waters: "usually, these operations are caried out in the 12-miles limit, because the UN convention forbids boardings in international waters"
- usually, you don't send the helicopters first: "we approach close to the ships on small boats and then ask the captain of the ship to let us board. If that does not work, we attempt to board from our small boats. And only if it does not work we use the helicopters"
- then, if they are attacked, "Commandos have non-lethal ways to handle these situations: tazer, soft ammunitions...we never use real ammunitions except in case of critical situation". However, the boardings off Gaza turned into a chaos.
While there is a disagreement on the first point and that the third point is not really debatable, I think most of us could agree that it was not a smart idea to board the ship from helicopters, as it made every retreat impossible, and as a retreat could have avoided the massacre. In fact I don't understand why they have used helicopters, as the humanitarian convoy was not very fast and was still far off Gaza, there was no emergency.
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