Israel to co-operate with UN probe into Gaza flotilla

Israel has announced it will co-operate with a UN investigation into its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
"Israel has nothing to hide, the opposite is true," BBC News quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying.

The four-member panel, announced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, will include an Israeli and a Turkish member. The panel, which will be led by former New Zealand PM Geoffrey Palmer and outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, will begin work on 10 August, Mr Ban said, adding it was an "unprecedented development."

Until now Israel had declined to take part in the inquiry and had set up its own investigation into the raid.

But Mr Netanyahu's office issued a statement saying: "It is in the national interest of the state of Israel to ensure that the factual truth of the overall flotilla events comes to light throughout the world and this is exactly the principle that we are advancing."

There are reports that the decision to co-operate has been welcomed in Turkey.

"This committee is an important step in remedying the injustice Turkey has encountered in the raid," a government source told AFP news agency.

Israel has a track record of not co-operating with, or giving limited co-operation to, UN inquiries.

The flotilla was made up of six ships, crewed by activists from a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups trying to break an embargo on ships entering Gaza. Hundreds of Turkish activists were on board one of the vessels, the MV Mavi Marmara, when it was raided by Israeli commandos in international waters.