Edited sentence: "Moments later, we heard detonations and then soldiers from helicopters above us dropped down on board."The attack on the Mavi Marmara came in an instant: they attacked it with 12 or 13 attack boats and also with commandos from helicopters."We continuously told them we did not have weapons, we came here to bring humanitarian help and not to fight," he said.Accounts of other passengers.Kutlu Tiryaki was a captain of another vessel in the flotilla.Monday morning.Norman Paech, a former member of the German parliament for the Left Party who was aboard the Marmara, said the ship was surrounded by small Israeli assault boats about 4:30 a.The German activist Norman Paech rejected Israel's explanation saying "This was not an act of self-defense... Personally I saw two and a half wooden batons that were used... There was really nothing else.The soldiers were all masked, carrying big guns and were extremely brutal," Paech said.There were three or four helicopters also used in the attack.We heard the gunshots over our portable radio handsets, which we used to communicate with the Mavi Marmara, because our ship communication system was disrupted.We never saw any knives...This was a clear act of piracy".We were told by Mavi Marmara their crew and civilians were being shot at and windows and doors were being broken by Israelis," he continued