The Israeli government yesterday easily defeated no-confidence motions over its May 31 raid on Gaza-bound activist aid ships but faced more calls for a probe of the deadly commando operation.
A motion by the main opposition party Kadima, which objected to the handling of the raid, was defeated 59-25 while another two brought by Arab parties opposed to the Gaza blockade both went down 81-8.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak defended last week's raid when special forces stormed the flotilla in international waters, killing nine Turks aboard one of the six ships.
He told MPs, however, that Israel would undertake an internal "examination" of events and of whether the blockade and its implementation were in keeping with international law.
While stressing that the blockade was essential to keep weaponry out of Hamas's hands, Mr Barak acknowledged the violence on the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara "was not the result we wanted" but stressed that Israel needed to take extraordinary measures to protect itself. He pointed out that Israel faces threats from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, from Hizbollah in Lebanon and from Iran.
Israel insists it must stop vessels from travelling to Gaza since they could be carrying weapons for Hamas - an Islamist movement committed to the destruction of Israel. And it insists that the aid which activists want to deliver to Gaza in defiance of the blockade is not needed.
"In Gaza, there are 1.5 million people. Only one of them is truly in need of humanitarian assistance," Mr Barak said in reference to soldier Gilad Shalit, now 23, who has been held by Hamas since he was captured in a June 2006 cross-border raid.
In another development yesterday, Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian "commandos" who were on a boat off Gaza wearing diving suits.
Israel's military said it had attacked "a squad of terrorists" on their way to launch an attack.
But survivor Abu al-Walid said there were no weapons in the boat and that the seven Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members on board were doing swimming training. Two escaped and one went missing, he said.