It would still be the wrong way to handle the situation. They should not have forcibly boarded the ships - especially not at night - maximising fear and confusion.
Yes but everyone on board all of those ships knew perfectly well that they
would be boarded at some point anyway. Whether it was done forty miles offshore or four miles offshore may or may not make a difference in terms of legal technicalities, but it makes no difference in any other way.
You can't seriously think that anyone thought the ships would be permitted to go all the way into Gaza without ever being boarded. That was never going to be on the cards. Even if it had to wait until the ships were within three miles of the Israeli coast they still would have been boarded at some point. If a ship is in your territorial waters and you want to search it you have the right to do this, and if violent resistance if offered you have the right to deal with that.
Are you telling me you think this was the best way to do this?
If you are determined to inspect a ship that is going to pass through your territorial waters, and if there are people on board who are prepared to fight you, then things are going to get nasty sooner or later.
About the only other thing that I can think of would be to send masses of riot troops onboard all at once so there was no real chance of resistance, but even if they did that it would still be played for max popcorn by the media. There may still have been deaths and almost certainly still would have been injuries. It would still be "Evil Nazi Aggressors Invade Peace Ship" or whatever. "Riot Police Deployed Against Humanitarian Volunteers". Hell, make up your own headline.
They went onboard at night because they thought everyone would be asleep. In other words, they timed it for when they thought it would cause the least trouble, not the most. Still a huge fuckup but there's no guarantee that doing it in the middle of the day would have been better.
The Israelis cannot possibly have been unaware of the tension and panic that would create - especially amongst pro-Palestinian campaigners/activists who are already deeply suspicious and distrustful of anything the Israelis do.
And every person on board those ships cannot possibly have been unaware of the tension their presence would create, especially amongst IDF personnel who are directly responsible for security and have legitimate concerns about possible arms smuggling and are already deeply suspicious and distrustful of anything the Hamas supporters do.
It's a big fuck up all round.
Topic: Isrealis attack Aid Convoy ships