Melanie Phillips makes the crucial point about yesterday's incident in her post today on the jaw-dropping interview with Sir Jeremy Greenstock on this morning's Today programme:

He [John Humphrys] also asked incredulously why Israel had not allowed the Gaza convoy
to dock before searching it rather than boarding it on the high seas.
Does no-one on the Today programme realise that Israel no longer
occupies Gaza – and that it was precisely to usher the convoy into the
Israeli port of Ashdod where it could be searched, before the transfer
of the humanitarian aid to Gaza, that the Israeli naval commandoes
boarded the ships. As the Israel ambassador pointed out, five of the
convoys’ ships went peacefully to Ashdod, thus allowing the cargo to be
searched and sent on its way. It was only because the sixth ship staged
a violent ambush of the commandoes that the debacle occurred.