Philippe Naughton
Turkey demanded today that Israel be punished for yesterday’s bungled commando raid on a flotilla of ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as international condemnation of the killings reached fever pitch.
At least nine activists, four of them identified as Turks and the remaining five thought also to be Turkish, were killed in the pre-dawn raid in international waters, when Israeli commandos rapelled from helicopters onto the fleet of ships.
Up to 40 Britons were among those detained and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it was "urgently seeking access" to all of them. Foreign Office sources said, however, that many of those detained had refused to give their names to the Israelis, making it hard to give firm numbers of Britons involved.
It was confirmed earlier that one Briton, Ahsan Shamruk, was injured in the attack and had received medical treatment.
