Vatican Decries Israeli Raid On ‘Freedom Flotilla’

RSS Facebook May 31, 2010

The Vatican has expressed intense concern about the Israeli raid on the “Freedom Flotilla” headed for the Gaza Strip on May 31.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, decried the “needless loss of lives” in the attack, which left at least 20 people dead and others wounded.

Reminding reporters that Pope Benedict XVI will soon be traveling to the Middle East for a pastoral visit to Crete, Father Lombardi said that the Pontiff will follow the latest crisis there with great care.

While outraged protestors in Turkey demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy to denounce the violent attack on the Freedom Flotilla (which had sailed from Turkey), supporters of Israel said that the ships deliberately provoked Israeli action by defying that country’s embargo on shipments to Gaza. Davis Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, charged that “violent clashes are exactly what the international supporters of Hamas must have been seeking.”