Israelis shoot dead four Palestinian divers

In the small hours of this morning, the Israeli navy intercepted a boat off the coast of Gaza and shot dead four Palestinians equipped with diving gear. The Israelis believe the men were planning a terrorist attack on Israel.

According to Israel media, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, has since reported that four of its men were killed and a fifth is missing. The Hamas authority in Gaza has also confirmed that four bodies have been recovered from the sea.

The Israeli paper Haaretz reports that the Palestinian boat was heading north to Israel when it was attacked at a position opposite the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The incident comes a week after nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed when Israel commandos raided the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy headed to Gaza from Cyprus.

It heightens the tension in the region, already at boiling point with a number of new political and military developments. They are:

 ANOTHER AID SHIP RAIDED

The Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish and other peace activists, was boarded by Israeli forces on Saturday. There was no repetition of the violence that ensued when commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara on May 31 - but activists are nonetheless angered by the interception.

The Rachel Corrie was escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod, from where the Israelis promised to send the aid supplies it was carrying by road to Gaza. The activists are due to be deported.

Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu hailed the "peaceful outcome" of the interception. But a co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement which organised the shipment, Mary Hughes Thompson, said she was "outraged".

The Israelis, she said, "once again went into international water and violently boarded a boat and forced people against their will to go to Israel, when all we wanted was to be left to go to Gaza, which is our goal."

 IRAN ENTERS FRAME

Iran warned on Sunday that it was prepared to send Revolutionary Guard naval vessels to act as "escorts" for future aid convoys seeking to break the blockade of Gaza.

Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said: "Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces are prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys that carry humanitarian assistance for the defenceless and oppressed people of Gaza with all their strength."

The statement is seen in Israel as a clear taunt by the Iranians. Israelis believe Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon - with their country the number one target - and already feel threatened by Tehran's relationship with Hamas, the Islamist authority in Gaza.

 'CENSORED' PHOTOS RELEASED

The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet has published photographs taken on May 31 when the Israel commandoes raided the Mavi Marmara aid ship, which show troops apparently having been attacked by passengers.

The paper claims the Israelis had tried to censor the photos because they show their troops in a bad light, but that specialists had managed to recover the images from a memory stick, even though they had been erased.

However, an IDF spokesman "expressed satisfaction" with Hurriyet's decision to publish the photos, saying: "This is clear proof of Israel's repeated claims, that the boat was carrying mercenaries, whose sole purpose was to kill the soldiers."

 NETANYAHU DISMISSED INQUIRY

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has dismissed a UN proposal for an international commission to investigate the May 31 commando assault on the Freedom Flotilla.

Netanyahu has defended Israel's right to maintain the blockade by arguing that without it Gaza would become an "Iranian port" and Hamas would be in a position to fire missiles at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. ·