A Montgomery County, Md., man is safe at home and giving his account of Israel's raid of a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip.
Nine people were killed while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid. Israel said it acted in self-defense when soldiers came under attack.
Edward Peck, a retired career diplomat from Chevy Chase who was the former Chief of Missions in Baghdad was caught in the melee.
Peck is active in the Free Palestine Movement and was asleep early Monday morning on the way to deliver supplies to Gaza. The flotilla was intercepted by Israel about fifty miles off the coast.
Pictures from the biggest ship showed Israeli commandos armed with paint guns and pistols being lowered from helicopters and then fighting with passengers. Video released overnight by the Israelis showed some of the passengers beating the soldiers with iron bars and tossing one commando into the sea.
Peck, 80, was a few miles away on another ship. He said he had no idea what was going on when commandoes boarded his ship loaded with humanitarian supplies. He was awakened by a stun grenade.
"They were on board and there was just a regular 'Pow!' sort of thing upstairs where they were trying to get people loose from the wheel house," Peck said. "In fact, there were two of them, now that I think about it. It was 4 o'clock in the morning, and everybody was kind of staggering around bumping into each other trying to figure out what the hell to do and where to do it."
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On the main ship, Israel said, its men opened fire with live ammunition only when their lives were threatened.
Nine activists were killed, most of them Turkish nationals. Dozens were wounded.
Peck was among about 600 in the flotilla detained for about 36 hours.
During that time, the group was isolated without their cell phones and BlackBerries, Peck said. Eventually, he was put on a plane home.
"I did not expect anybody to get killed," Peck said. "I did not know anybody had been killed until I got to New Jersey this morning."
The UN Security Council has called for an investigation into the raid while Israel and its supporters say it was the fault of the activists for attacking Israeli commandoes.
"They refused to go through customs," said a representative from the Israeli Institute, which believes the flotilla was trying to take supplies to a terrorist organization. "They refused to allow Israelis to peacefully board the ships, so it was not an overreaction in that way. The overreaction were the people on board who physically attacked the Israelis and the unfortunate result of nine dead."
The incident has sparked anti-Israel protests in Europe and in front of the White House where demonstrators are calling on President Barack Obama's administration to condemn the action.
