Protesters pray before Israeli embassy in Ankara in protest of Gaza-flotilla raid

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

AA Photo

A group of people from the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (İHH) prayed before the Israeli ambassador’s house in Ankara early May 31 on the fifth anniversary of Israel’s 2010 raid on the “Mavi Marmara,” a Gaza-bound flotilla ship.

A group of people from the Konya branch of the İHH, which had aimed to bring relief material to Gaza with the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship, prayed the morning prayer on May 31 before the house of Israel’s ambassador to Ankara. 

The group was on their way to Istanbul for the “Free Jerusalem March” which will be held at 5 p.m. on May 31, before the Fatih Mosque located on the city’s historic peninsula. 

In May 2010, Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals and an American of Turkish origin in a raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was part of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla.” Another person died in a Turkish hospital in 2014 after being in a coma for almost four years.

The convoy was organized and headed by the İHH and was carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which was under an Israeli blockade at the time.

Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv in 2010 after Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, bringing the already strained relationship between the Jewish state and Turkey to a breaking point.

Diplomatic relations between the two states have been reduced to the second-secretary level since then.