The wife of the Mavi Marmara captain, Nilüfer Ören, stated that IDF began tracking them after , there were 40 Israeli ships following and snooping on the convoy until the troopers were boarding the ships from helicopters at 04:45 am. She also said that stun grenades and smoke bombs were used. Therefore activists and crewmembers used gasmasks. Norman Paech, a former member of the German parliament Left Party who was aboard the Mavi Marmara said he only saw three activists resisting on his part of the boat and said "They had no knives, no axes, only sticks that they used to defend themselves."