Holbrooke assures safe return of Pak nationals

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Richard Holbrooke has assured Pakistan of the release of its detained nationals by Israel.

Talking to the media at Islamabad airport,  Qureshi said he had contacted the US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghansitan and asked him to get information about the missing Pakistanis. He said Israel had confirmed to the US that no Pakistani national was among the injured or deceased. Earlier, Qureshi had termed the Israeli attack on the Gaza bound convoy as barbaric.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's embassy in Washington has established an operation room to coordinate efforts for the rescue of three Pakistani citizens being held by Israeli forces.

An embassy spokesperson has informed that Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani is in constant touch with senior US officials.

He also said that the three Pakistanis - including eminent TV anchor Syed Talat Hussain - are on the ship named Mavi Marmara, which will shortly anchor at an Israeli port.

Israel detains 480 activists

Israel has detained 480 pro-Palestinian activists captured in its deadly commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and will expel 48 others, public radio reported on Tuesday.

Those detained were being held at the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while the other 48 were being taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be sent back to their home countries, said the report.

Israeli officials would question the detainees before deciding whether to free them or prosecute them. Another 45 activists, most of them Turkish, were reported of being treated in various hospitals.

Meanwhile, Israel's navy is ready to stop another aid ship headed to Gaza, a commander said on Tuesday, playing down the prospect of his men shying from confrontation after their bloody seizure of a Turkish vessel a day earlier.

Israel's Army Radio reported that the MV Rachel Corrie, a converted merchant ship, would reach Gazan waters by Wednesday. A marine lieutenant who was not named told Army Radio in an interview that he expected an easy takeover of the ship. "We as a unit are studying, and we will carry out professional investigations to reach conclusions," the lieutenant said, referring to a skirmish in which his unit shot nine international activists aboard the Turkish ferry. "And will we also be ready for the Rachel Corrie," he added.

In an Internet posting from Ireland on April 20, the Perdana Global Peace Organisation said the Free Gaza Movement, which opposes an Israeli-led blockade on the Palestinian territory, bought the Rachel Corrie as part of an aid flotilla.

Israel blames activists for initiating violence

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew home to Israel Tuesday, cancelling a visit to Washington as an international outcry grew over its deadly commando raid on Gaza aid ships.

Israel has said nine activitists died in the pre-dawn assault in international waters and Netanyahu expressed regret at the loss of life. But he insisted that the Israeli commandos had "defended themselves from a lynching" at the hands of the activists as they rappelled down from helicopters onto the ships.

The Israeli leader was speaking from Canada ahead of what would have been talks at the White House to improve badly strained relations with the US. US President Barack Obama expressed "deep regret" over the activists' deaths and stressed "the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning's tragic events as soon as possible."

Most of the dead were Turkish and their deaths plunged into crisis the Jewish state's already fragile relations with Ankara - a government that was once its closest Muslim ally.

Turkey recalled its ambassador and there were angry anti-Israeli protests in several Turkish cities.

As Israel pointed the finger of blame at passengers for initiating the violence, activists from the ships countered with their own descriptions of how events unfolded in the raid which took place at around 5:00 am (0200 GMT).

Live footage shot by activists on the Turkish passenger boat, which was carrying more than 600 people, showed black-clad Israeli commandos clashing with activists and several wounded people lying on the deck of the ship.

Activists from the Free Gaza movement on board the Mavi Marmara charged that Israeli troops "fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep." But Israeli military officials and commandos involved in the operation said they had only responded with force after being attacked with knives, clubs and even live fire.

One of the commandos told reporters he was pounced on as soon as he reached the deck. "They beat us up with metal sticks and knives," he said. "There was live fire at some point against us."   A senior military official said seven soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, and said the navy had been gearing to deal with the passengers as "peace activists, not to fight."

"This was not spontaneous. It was planned," he said, displaying a box he said had been recovered from the boat containing switchblades, slingshots, big metal balls and metal bats.

Israel faces storm

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took strong issue with the Israeli account insisting that there had been no one aboard the vessels "other than civilian volunteers."

The UN Security Council met in emergency session and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told delegates that Israel had "lost all legitimacy" through the deadly raid. "It is murder committed by a state. It has no justification whatsoever," Davutoglu said.

Britain France, Russia and China, all veto-wielding permanent council members, called for Israeli blockade of Gaza to be lifted - in line with Security Council Resolution 1860 - and for an independent inquiry.

Israel issued a travel advisory warning its citizens against travelling to Turkey, but officials said there were no plans to recall its envoy.

Ambassadors from the 27 European Union countries condemned Israel's resort to violence against the aid flotilla and demanded an impartial inquiry.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the navy raid as "a massacre" and announced a three-day mourning period.

And Ismail Haniya, prime minister in the Gaza administration of the Hamas movement, called on the Western-backed Palestinian leadership "to halt negotiations, direct or indirect, with Israel because of this crime."

Australia on Tuesday strongly condemned a deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid ship, in which at least nine people were killed, and called for an urgent independent inquiry. "The Australian government condemns any use of violence under the sorts of circumstances that we have seen,"

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters. "We are deeply concerned about the loss of life which has occurred." Rudd said it was "imperative" that Israel's government conduct an "immediate, independent inquiry" into the incident, and its findings be urgently handed to the United Nations Security Council.

An Australian man on board the ship underwent surgery after being shot in the leg, and two Australian journalists on the flotilla were safe and receiving consular help. The journalists and two other Australian women were being detained in Beersheba detention centre and their safety had been confirmed, Smith said, describing it as a "terrible and shocking incident" which required credible and transparent investigation by Israel and international scrutiny.

Israeli forces took the six ships in the aid flotilla to the port of Ashdod. The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, were on a mission to deliver some 10,000 tonnes of supplies to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007 when Hamas seized control of the territory. Israel had warned that it would intercept the ships.