Israel to hold internal probes

Israel plans to hold internal probes of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that would fall far short of calls for an international inquiry into a commando operation widely condemned abroad.
The probes will look exclusively into the legality of Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and the May 31 raid on an aid flotilla that sought to break it, minister without portfolio Benny Begin told public radio yesterday.
But Israeli media criticised hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for restricting the probe's mandate to theoretical legal questions, saying it would be little more than a "committee light," and an "investigative committee without investigators."
"It is not supposed to investigate whether the blockade policy as a whole is either effective or justified ... And that is the recipe by means of which the government is trying to ensure the failure of the investigation into the flotilla events," the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot said.
Meanwhile, Turkey sought a fresh condemnation of Israel over its deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid ships as regional leaders gathered in Istanbul Tuesday to discuss security in Asia.
Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan as well as Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the talks, expected to end with a joint declaration later Tuesday.
"There will probably be a condemnation of Israel in the final declaration," a Turkish diplomat said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday his country would raise the controversial issue of who should investigate Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla at the United Nations.
"Unfortunately, this act happened in international waters, which is another source for concern," Putin said during a press conference on the sidelines of an Istanbul summit on security in Asia.
Putin stressed the need for calm and for a thorough and comprehensive investigation at the press conference also attended by Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"We will raise the issue at the United Nations, we're working at it," said Putin, who discussed the raid with Erdogan "in detail".
Putin said the "tragic incident with the humanitarian flotilla for the Gaza strip, the loss of peaceful civilians has caused a new exacerbation of the situation.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has made it clear that the commandos who carried out the deadly raid should not be put on the stand.
"I insist that the combatants, who carried out a task that we imposed on them and who had to make decisions in split seconds about whether to pull the trigger without taking legal considerations into account, not be questioned," he said.
Israel is reportedly considering a team made up of Israeli jurists and former diplomats as well as two foreign observers.
This would fall far short of the independent, international investigation several world leaders have called for in the wake of the commando raid in which nine Turkish activists were killed.