here's a clip and article about a uk activist who was on one of the boats the israelis raided. obviously not a single element in the idf's story is confirmed here. not one.
British survivor of Gaza flotilla raid: 'Israelis ignored SOS calls' | World news | guardian.co.uk
so no, i don't think this was "staged"---i think it was a colossal fuck up on the israeli part. but they fucked up with live ammunition so people ended up dead.
it seems really obvious that this is the case.
i can't understand the contortions people are willing to put themselves through to rationalize this.
as for why someone would shoot....the problem is the situation itself. within such a situation, things get chaotic very quickly, snap decisions are made based on appearance as much as anything else and people can get hurt or killed very very easily. but what the article/clip above make clear is that the idf came on in an extremely violent, aggressive manner. and if it is the case that they handcuffed the ship's medical staff and refused to help the wounded....then we're back in classic colonial brutality mode, aren't we? the kind of ordinary disregard for human life so prevalent in the occupied territories and embodied in the siege.
bad business.