Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, June 10, 2012. Netanyahu on Sunday led a chorus of Israeli officials expressing outrage over the bloodshed in Syria, accusing Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah militants of complicity in the carnage there. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner, Pool)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, June 10, 2012. Netanyahu on Sunday led a chorus of Israeli officials expressing outrage over the bloodshed in Syria, accusing Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah militants of complicity in the carnage there. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner, Pool)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? A government report released Wednesday harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision-making in a deadly Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound ship two years ago, saying it was flawed and marked by superficial discussions.
Israeli naval commandos killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American after being attacked when storming the ship on May 31, 2010. The ship, the Mavi Marmara, had set out from Turkey in an attempt to breach Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The raid drew heavy international criticism and deepened a diplomatic feud with Turkey, Israel's one-time ally. Israel's refusal to apologize for the flotilla killings sent relations deteriorating even further.
"Substantive and significant deficiencies were discovered in the decision-making process ... that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led and oversaw," State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote in the 153-page report.
"The prime minister's decision-making process took place without orderly, coordinated and documented team work, even though the senior political, military and intelligence ranks were aware that the Turkish flotilla was different from other flotillas," it said.
Netanyahu, the report continued, "did not internalize that the forcible stopping of the flotilla was liable to spark a violent confrotnation on the decks of the Mavi Marmara."
Netanyahu has argued that Israel behaved responsibly in its handling of the affair.
In an initial response to the report, Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said that "Israel's democratic process includes institutional mechanisms for independent oversight and we thank the State Comptroller for his work."
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