It smacks of what we call a 'PR Trap', and it looks like the Israelis have been badly caught out.

IMHO they appear to have done most things right, they have clearly captured most of the incident on reasonable quality sound and audio recordings which gives them the means to fight the alternative narrative put forward by Hamas and the like. They have acted within International Law and their actions can be argued as necessary, proportionate and justifiable, although comment in the UK is switching as to whether the Gaza blocakade is proportionate (an therefore justifiable and legitimate).

I would be interested to know what the Israeli thinking was on their tactics. There were a lot of people on board the ship and with the potential for having to conduct crowd control on board I might have expected to see baton rounds, CS gas and stun grenades all in use; as well as a much larger boarding party.

Of course going in mob handed while probably safer for all concerns still leads to presentational concerns - the PR trap again.

Disabling the engines and towing to a secure location or a third party does seem a good approach, possibly minimising direct confrontation on board (although towing without the consent of the crew may be practically problematic) and depending where towed to the media access can be better regulated.

RR