'Gaza Freedom Flotilla' aid included expired medicines, old supplies

Israel is being lambasted from all sides for its Monday defensive operation outside Gaza, with the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate, in-depth investigation, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan calling the incident a "bloody massacre" and protestors coming out in droves in cities across the globe to engage in a little peaceful Israeli flag burning.

But what's not being reported by the majority of news outlets is at the very heart of the matter: if the so-called "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" activists were really so concerned with getting humanitarian aid to Gaza, why is much of the supply stock they were bringing totally unusable?

According to Israel National News, the Israeli air force checked much of the 'aid' inventory aboard the ships in the Port of Ashdod and found it to be in such poor shape - the stash included old equipment and expired medicines - that most of it was useless.

And why is nobody questioning the purported mission on the flotilla? Gaza is hardly the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. Israel even spent the days before Operation Cast Lead in 2008 organizing the shipment of humanitarian aid - which amounted to thousands of tons of food and medical supplies, as well as hundreds of thousands of liters of diesel fuel - into the strip.

"International aid organizations and the private sector of Gaza ensure that all the necessary food, medicine and clothing are provided to the Strip via Israel," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor said this week in response to criticism of Israel. "In a typical week 15,000 tons of supplies enter Gaza: truckloads of meat, poultry, fish, dairy products,  fruits, vegetables ... arrive in Gaza on a daily basis."