UPDATED Gaza Latest (17 June): Israel "Eases Blockade"; Turkey Suspends Military Agreements with Israel; Reactions to Israeli Enquiry

UPDATED 1020 GMT: Would you like a story that might be even bigger than Israel's announcement of a revised blockade policy? Try this from Zaman:

"The Defense Industry Implementation Committee (SSİK) convened under the chairmanship of PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to take up the issue of military agreements and projects with Israel. Turkey -- which recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv and cancelled three military exercises in the aftermath of a bloody Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship -- has shelved 16 bilateral agreements due to Israel's refusal to apologize for the killings or pay compensation.

Thus, all Turkish-Israeli agreements at the state level have been cancelled....

All bilateral projects in the field of military training and cooperation will be frozen; a $757 million plane and tank modernization project and a missile project worth over $1.5 billion have already been shelved. The majority of work on these projects was planned to be cooperative Turkish-Israeli efforts.

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UPDATED 0945 GMT: The Israeli Prime Minister's Office has announced that Israel will ease its land blockade on Gaza, expanding the number of products allowed into the area, including construction materials: "It was agreed to liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza (and) expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision."

The statement said "existing security procedures to prevent the inflow of weapons and war materiel" would continue. There was no reference to Israel's sea blockade.

Both Turkey and Amnesty International have criticised Israel's plan for an enquiry into the military operation against the Freedom Flotilla, with three Israeli members joined by two international observers, Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble of Northern Ireland and Ken Watkin, former judge advocate general of the Canadian military.

The head of the Middle East and North Africa division of Amnesty International, Malcolm Smart, said: "The structure of the government-appointed committee brings disappointment. This was a missed opportunity." He added that the probe lacked sufficient independence from the Government to reach meaningful conclusions and that the findings of the committee would be unusable for future legal actions in regard to the events that occurred during the flotilla raid.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted by Agence France Presse, "We have no trust at all that Israel, a country that has carried out such an attack on a civilian convoy in international waters, will conduct an impartial investigation.

In Ankara, ministers of the Erdogan Government clearly agreed on three points: Israel committed a crime and must acknowledge this; Israel must apologize to both the Turkish state and its citizens; and Israel must give compensation to the families of people it killed, to the wounded citizens, and to Turkish citizens who were forcefully taken from the Flotilla and arrested. Turkey's ambassador to Israel remains in Ankara.

The Turkish-Israeli tension is causing ripples in the US, with Jewish groups debating a response. “There are lines that mustn't be crossed, and we have seen over the last weeks those lines aggressively crossed,” said Jason Isaacson, the director of international affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and added: ”The dilemma is to honor the legacy of Turkey's hospitality and integration of its Jews in its society.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency also put out this "undecided" position. The organisation said:

The fragile consensus emerging from the establishment Jewish organizational leadership is that the relationship it has cultivated over the decades with Turkey is worth preserving -- at least for now.

However, speaking to to RFE/RL's Armenian Service on Monday, Washington Times journalist Eli Lake insisted that Turkey can no longer count on the backing of the powerful Jewish lobby in the United States in its efforts to block a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.

He added, "One of the prizes of the Turks in their relationship with Israel was support from the American Jewish community in Washington. After the flotilla incident, I would say that that support for now has dried up."

Gaza Latest (15 June): US & Britain Welcome Israeli Enquiry; Abbas Opposes Lifiting of Blockade

UPDATE 0630 GMT: Mahmoud Abbas has denied the report that he opposed the lifting of Israel's blockade on Gaza.

Both the White House and Britain's Foreign Ministry moved quickly on Monday to welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's confirmation that Israel would hold an internal enquiry into the assault on the Freedom Flotilla, with the three Israeli members buttressed by former Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble and Brigadier General Ken Watkin, a former judge advocate general of the Canadian Armed Forces.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs issued this official response:

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We believe that Israel, like any other nation, should be allowed to undertake an investigation into events that involve its national security. Israel has a military justice system that meets international standards and is capable of conducting a serious and credible investigation, and the structure and terms of reference of Israel's proposed independent public commission can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation. But we will not prejudge the process or its outcome, and will await the conduct and findings of the investigation before drawing further conclusions.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the Israeli announcement "an important step forward" and said, "Clearly it is very important that it is a truly independent enquiry and a thorough investigation that the international community can respect".

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee quickly welcomed Washington's "dramatic and courageous statement", adding: "[We] call on the Obama administration to act decisively at the United Nations and other international forums to block any action –-- including alternative investigations supported by the Secretary General –-- which would isolate Israel."

Others were not as positive. Turkey continued to insist on an independent international investigation, as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared, “We don't have any confidence at all that Israel will conduct an impartial investigation -- as a country which attacked a civilian convoy in international waters, thereby committing a violation of international law....Any investigation conducted unilaterally by Israel will have no value to us.”

Critics claimed that the "international" dimension of Israel's enquiry was already compromised by the appointment of Trimble, a fervent supporter of West Jerusalem. Ha'aretz noted that the Nobel Prize laureate --- ironically, the second laureate to be involved in this crisis, as Mairead Corrigan was a passenger on the Flotilla --- had joined the “Friends of Israel” initiative launched in Paris on 31 May, an initiative which includes  Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Dore Gold, a close associate of Netanyahu.

In another Gaza development, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli blockade should not be lifted before a reconciliation between his party Fatah and Hamas, Gaza's political leaders, and that the step should only come through a Palestinian Government led by the current Prime Minister of the PA, Salam Fayyad.