From Benjamin Netanyahu’s testimony before the commission investigating the IDF's boarding the Turkish ship trying to proceed uninspected to Hamas-controlled Gaza:
During the month of May, a continual diplomatic effort to [divert the flotilla to an alternative port] was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs vis-a-vis many countries, including countries whose citizens were onboard or whose harbors could be used by the flotilla at any stage of its voyage – including Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, Britain, the United Nations, and above all with Turkey. …
• We tried to prevent the launch of the flotilla at the diplomatic and security levels. We did not succeed.
• We suggested transferring the goods through the Ashdod and El-Arish ports. We did not succeed.
• We held continuous contacts vis-à-vis and with the most senior levels of the Turkish government. We did not succeed.
… I would like to call your attention to one of [our other] directives: embedding foreign reporters with IDF forces so that they could record and film the unfolding events in order to prevent the dissemination of false reports. …
Unfortunately, slandering the IDF and the State of Israel happens time after time. It happened during “Operation Defensive Shield” when a mass slaughter in Jenin was invented. It happened during the Second Lebanon War and during “Operation Cast Lead”, when Israel was falsely accused of intentionally harming civilians. It started to happen on the morning of May 31. Preliminary reports of the event published around the world claimed that our soldiers killed innocent peace activists.
It was only when videos were distributed several hours later that this lie began to be exposed. Imagine what would have happened if we did not have these videos.
The testimony is worth reading in its entirety.