Financial Times editorial.

With Monday's brazen act of piracy, Israel dealt a blow to the legitimacy of its own struggle. The killing of activists aboard the captured ships sent Israel's way of defending its security, which it was already imperative to return within the bounds of international law, hurtling into lawlessness.

Israel claims the activists had links with extremist groups and that some attacked Israeli soldiers with knives and sticks (and in some accounts the odd light firearm). Even if true, this would not justify the illegal capture of civilian ships carrying humanitarian aid in international waters, let alone the use of deadly force.

Independent report.

Israel was struggling to contain a rapidly mounting diplomatic crisis last night after naval commandos killed at least nine pro-Palestinian activists in international waters after storming their Turkish passenger ship as it attempted to reach the coast of the besieged Gaza strip.

AlertNet story.

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.

Nafeez Ahmed comments.

What really happened? Well, the Israeli story, at face value, is difficult to take seriously. The activists on board the Flotilla were not peace activists, they are "terrorists" and "terrorist sympathisers" who supposedly in PM Netanyahu's words "mobbed, beat, stabbed and maybe even shot at" Israeli soldiers who were, of course, just popping in for a nice cup of tea... or bowl of homous... or whatever.

Laura Rozen on Politico quoting Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned trip to Washington Tuesday and will return home to Israel from Canada today to deal with the diplomatic crisis in the aftermath of Israeli commandos killing ten people on ships bringing aid to Gaza.

Al Jazeera report.

At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured when troops intercepted the convoy of ships dubbed the Freedom Flotilla early on Monday, Israeli radio reported.

The flotilla was attacked in international waters, 65km off the Gaza coast.

BBC report.

More than 10 people have been killed after Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of ships carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army says.

[...]

It happened about 40 miles (64 km) out to sea, in international waters.

IMEMC report.

Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stated Friday afternoon that the solidarity ships, filled with medical and humanitarian supplies, and heading to Gaza, is a "violent propaganda against Israel", and vowed not to allow the ship to reach Gaza.

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Within 48 hours of becoming Foreign Secretary, William Hague faces a political crisis over the Middle East. The emirate of Dubai has named a British citizen as a 19th suspect of the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official murdered in the emirate four months ago, apparently by a group that included holders of forged British passports. According to a source in the United Arab Emirates, the suspect arrived in Dubai under his own name and carrying a genuine British passport.

Friday Lunch Club quoting the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy.

These contacts, which included the State Department's approval of a debate between a senior U.S. diplomat and a Hamas representative, have been interpreted by Hamas -- and Fatah, its rival -- as a softening of the U.S. stance against the party.

IMEMC report.

Nasser Al Siraj, assistant-director of the National Economy Ministry in Gaza, stated that Israel approved the entry of shoes and clothes and decided to increase the number of trucks carrying the two products from 6 to 10.

[...]

Shoes and clothes were not allowed into Gaza since two years due to the siege that prevented the entry of basic supplies, food stuffs and even medications and medical equipment.

Bloomberg report.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel will "sooner or later" have to destroy the Islamic Hamas regime that controls the Gaza Strip, after two Israeli soldiers were killed in the coastal enclave.

Jeremy Bowen report for the BBC.

The Middle East is full of talk of war. Not today, tomorrow or perhaps even next year but the horizon is dark, and people who have to live with the Middle East's grim collection of smouldering problems are finding it hard to look ahead with anything other than foreboding.

Times report.

Israeli tanks advanced into the Gaza Strip yesterday as the worst clashes in 14 months erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters.

Both sides blamed each other for triggering the violence, in which two Israeli soldiers and several Palestinians were killed.

Craig Murray comments.

Miliband did his level best today, in his parliamentary statement on the expulsion of the Israeli "diplomat" over forged British passports, to avoid mentioning the murder in Dubai at all. For those who criticised my decision to rejoin the Lib-Dems as "Zionist", I point out that it was Lib Dem spokesman Ed Davey who first introduced the oppression of the Palestinians of Gaza into the debate.

Guardian report.

David Miliband said today that there was "compelling evidence" that Israel was responsible for misuse of British passports as part of a plot to kill a prominent member of Hamas.