Israel firm on not apologising over flotilla

Israel sticks to refusal to apologise to Turkey for killing nine of its citizens on Gaza-bound aid ship last year. Israeli marines shot dead nine Turkish passengers on the Mavi Marmara aid ship in May 2010 Israel says it will stick to its refusal to apologise to Turkey for killing nine of its citizens on a Gaza-bound aid ship, an Israeli official has said. Wednesday's announcement, which the official said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a telephone call a day earlier, was made days before the publication of the findings of a UN inquiry into the deadly raid of the Mavi Marmara boat last year. The so-called Palmer report was repeatedly delayed to allow for Israeli-Turkish reconcilliaiton talks amid concern in Washington at the rift between two countries that had been strategic partners in an increasingly volatile Middle East. Read more