Confrontation that resulted in an Israeli attack on a group of activists including Honolulu's Ann Wright has resulted in angry accusations that should be weighed by an independent investigation as a step toward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Obama administration should be at the forefront of leading in that direction, with Israel agreeing to abide by the findings.

Wright, a retired Army/Army Reserve colonel who resigned from a diplomatic post in 2003 in protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, expected a hostile response to the activists' provocation, but not to the degree that resulted in deaths of nine activists and dozens injured aboard the lead ship of eight vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. She said the more than 600 activists had prepared for Israelis “;firing weapons in front of the ships and sending well-armed boarding parties onto the ships.”;

Instead, activists said Israeli commandos threw tear gas canisters onto the ship's deck at night before roping down from a helicopter. The Israeli government says its troops were attacked by passengers with knives and clubs and the soldiers fired only in self-defense. Seven Israeli soldiers were reported wounded by violent resistance from the activists.

The Israelis initiated the blockade of the Gaza Strip by sea after the militant Hamas seized control of the territory three years ago, but some ships have been allowed to go to shore. Also, tons of supplies, including medical equipment, have been allowed to go into Gaza all year through Israeli-controlled land crossings, said Col. Moshe Levi, commander of the Israeli military's Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration.

The activists reportedly rejected an Israeli offer to unload cargo from six ships and deliver it by truck to Gaza. By one account, Israel had begun transferring cargo - including toys, used clothes and wheelchairs - from the flotilla at a naval base for trucking to Gaza.

Israel may have suspected hostility because the activists' Free Gaza Movement had teamed up with a wealthy Turkish organization to assemble the flotilla. Israeli authorities charge that the organization is linked to al-Qaeda and has bought weapons, which it denies. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the blockade is justified to prevent smuggling of weapons to Gaza.

The United Nations Human Rights Council says it will send a fact-finding mission to investigate the attack, but Israelis could ignore such a probe. A U.N. fact-finding mission concluded one-sidedly last year that Israel “;committed actions amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity”; in its 2008 invasion of Gaza.

President Barack Obama has expressed “;the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances”; around the tragic conflict involving the flotilla. A credible investigation, independent from the U.N., is needed before his administration can push for what the White House calls “;a comprehensive peace agreement which establishes an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state as the way to resolve the overall situation.”;