JERUSALEM - The Israeli High Court rejected both leftist and rightist groups' petitions made regarding this week's IDF flotilla raid on Thursday.

The hearing, which began late Wednesday afternoon, involved six petitions. Three of them demanded information on the whereabouts of all or some of the passengers, all of whom had been brought to Ashdod.

The other three asked the court to overrule the decision of Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, to halt the police investigation of the events that took place on the Turkish ferry, Mavi Marmara.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, claims that she found no basis for interfering with the attorney general's deportation of the activists.

The court came out in support of the IDF's actions on the Mavi Marmara ship, saying that "the soldiers were forced to respond in order to defend their lives. Unfortunately, the action ended, as was not to be expected, with the loss of lives. Nine people were killed and soldiers and flotilla participants were wounded."

Earlier Wednesday, Weinstein, informed the High Court that he had accepted a recommendation from the security cabinet to allow all of the passengers to leave the country.

“I reached this decision,” he told the court, “after I took into consideration, on the one hand, the overall public interest in enforcing the law, and, on the other hand, the recommendation of the political echelon, which was based, among other things, on the decision of the Security Council of June 1, which called for the immediate release of all the citizens who had arrived on the flotilla and on requests from foreign countries and international organizations.