The Israeli government has agreed to participate in a U.N. investigation into the incident, which resulted in the deaths of eight Turks and a U.S. citizen. Israeli sailors said they were acting in self-defense when they opened fire on the boat.

After initially declining to take part, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu justified his government's decision by stating: "Israel has nothing to hide, the opposite is true. 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," the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Tuesday.

The decision marks a stark reversal of policy by Netanyahu's government, which last year boycotted participating in a U.N. Human Rights Council fact-finding inquiry led by retired South African Judge Richard Goldstone to investigate Israel and Hamas' actions during the Dec. 27, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009 Israeli "Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza, in which an estimated 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.

The incident has severely strained relations between Israel and Turkey, the sole Muslim nation with which it has a military alliance. The government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded an international inquiry, compensation and a public apology, all conditions which Israel up to now has refused to concede.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who helped to broker the arrangement, hailed it as an "unprecedented development," stating: "For the past two months, I have engaged in intensive consultation with the leaders of Israel and Turkey on the setting up of a panel of inquiry on the flotilla incident of 31 May," adding that hoped the inquiry would "impact positively on the relationship between Turkey and Israel as well as the overall situation in the Middle East."

The flotilla was trying to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel allows goods into that region but demands they first be landed at an Israeli port, inspected and then be trucked into Gaza. The Israelis say this is to limit material that could be used for militant purposes from getting into the area.

The ships were boarded in the early hours of May 31 in international waters 75 miles west of Gaza, well outside Israel's self-proclaimed 20-mile exclusion zone, where it has blocked ships from entering Gazan waters since December 2008.

The vessels were taken over by Israeli Shayetet 13 commandos, who Israel maintains opened fire in self-defense, an assertion hotly contested by flotilla participants.

As Israel has retained both the flotilla ships and all the materials on board, including cameras, video-cameras, computers among other equipment, it has been impossible to reconstruct an objective chronology of events. The U.N. Human Rights Council voted two days after the flotilla raid to establish its own inquiry into the incident.

earlier related report
Turkey summons Israeli envoy over spy chief comments
Ankara (AFP) Aug 3, 2010 - Turkey's foreign ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest after Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak described its new spy chief as a "supporter" of Iran, a Turkish diplomat said Tuesday.

Ambassador Gaby Levy was called in Monday to a meeting where Deputy Undersecretary Halit Cevik conveyed Ankara's displeasure over the comments, the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli embassy in Ankara was not immediately available for comment.

Israel's army radio reported on Sunday that Barak had expressed concern that Ankara could pass secret information to Israel's arch-foe Iran because its new intelligence chief supported the Islamic Republic.

"Turkey is a friendly country, a strategic ally, but the nomination in recent weeks of a new chief of the Turkish secret services who is a supporter of Iran worries us," he told a meeting of his centre-left Labour party.

In a recording of his remarks broadcast by the army radio, Barak said the appointment could result in "the Iranians having access to secret information."

Turkey appointed Hakan Fidan, 42, as the head of the National Intelligence Organisation, known by its Turkish acronym MIT, on May 27 after he served as undersecretary for foreign affairs to the prime minister and represented Turkey at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The latter position placed him at the forefront of Turkey's efforts to resolve the international standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, according to the Turkish press.

Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, views Iran as its greatest strategic threat because of Tehran's atomic programme -- which it believes is aimed at developing weapons -- and the frequent predictions of the demise of the Jewish state by Iran's leaders.

Turkey's efforts for a peaceful resolution to the stand-off over Iran's nuclear programme, especially a May 17 deal committing Iran to send some its uranium stockpile to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel, has raised suspicions in the Jewish state.

The deal was cold-shouldered by world powers, which backed a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran on June 9 over its refusal to halt its controversial uranium enrichment programme.

Turkey, which holds a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, voted against the sanctions in a move which strengthened concerns that it was deviating from its traditional pro-Western path and turning East.

The "no" vote came amid a deep crisis in once-strong Turkish-Israeli ties triggered by an Israeli raid on Gaza-bound aid ships on May 31 which killed nine Turks.

After the raid, an infuriated Ankara recalled its ambassador from Israel after and cancelled three planned joint military exercises with the Jewish state.

Turkey says Israel must apologise for the raid, pay compensation for the victims and lift the blockade of Gaza for bilateral ties to recover.

On Monday UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced the creation of a four-member panel, including a Turk and an Israeli, to investigate the raid, a move that Turkey welcome as an important step.

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