Negotiator accuses Israel of war crime

PALESTINIAN REACTION:THE ENTIRE Palestinian leadership strongly condemned Israel's military action against the flotilla taking humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Following its weekly meeting the Palestinian cabinet, chaired by prime minister Salam Fayyad, issued a statement characterising the Israeli action as a “crime” that “reveals, once again, Israeli disregard of the lives of innocent civilians” and called for the “unconditional lifting” of the siege on Gaza.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dubbed the Israeli raid on the boats a “war crime”. Mustafa Barghouti, an independent deputy, called the attack “a declaration of war on many countries, including Turkey, Sweden and Ireland”, all of which had nationals on the boats.

Hamas ruled out retaliation but the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine vowed to respond. In the morning Palestinian youths threw bottles and stones at Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem.

Palestinians were glued to television coverage of the raid. Joumana, who accompanied a cousin to a doctor’s appointment, said: “Everyone was watching over and over again the Israelis landing on the deck of the Turkish boat. People cheered when some of the passengers grabbed the soldiers when they hit the deck. What would you do in the middle of the night if someone wearing a black face mask jumped on you? You would defend yourself.”