Palestinian shot after opening fire at Israeli army

Some 70 people embarked the ships from all over Greece before setting off to the Palestinian territory. Judge Davis admitted, when I testified before her in February, that the commission, though investigating a war, had no military expertise.

If the Palestinians were seen as referring cases against Israel, that could trigger a backlash from the USA Congress could withhold $400 million that the United States annually provides for aid projects in the West Bank. A government statement noted that it was “well known that the entire process that led to the production of this report was politically motivated and morally flawed from the outset”. The organizers on board the vessel, including Arab MK Basel Ghattas insists they are brining humanitarian and medical supplies to Gaza, calling on the global community to compel Israel to release its stranglehold on Gaza.

“Human rights abuses under Hamas included security forces killing, torturing, arbitrarily detaining, and harassing opponents, including Fatah members, and other Palestinians with impunity”, it said.

“Forty-three percent of Israelis think that Palestinians’ aspirations in the long run are to conquer the State of Israel and destroy much of the Jewish population”. Thus the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli children killed in what Western media, to disguise the reality of the situation, calls a “war”, was about 530 to 1.

Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2006 after Hamas captured an Israeli soldier, and tightened it a year later when the Islamist movement consolidated control of the Strip.

“UNICEF initiated their report in response to concerns regarding the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and punishment of Palestinian children while in the Israeli military detention system”, the letter said. Survivors gave graphic testimony, describing air-strikes that reduced buildings to piles of dust and rubble in seconds.

On 20 July the father of eight lost 26 family members, including all of his children and his wife, in a single bomb attack. “We all died that day, even those who survived”.

Israel has vowed to prevent the flotilla from reaching the shores of Gaza, threatening Ghattas and other participants.

The leaders of Israel’s army must understand that the strategy of massively bombarding inhabited areas is unacceptable, and that they must develop new, sophisticated fighting methods to deal with terror organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah.

The United Nations report said that the 2014 hostilities also caused “immense distress and disruption to the lives of civilians in Israel”.

The evidence used to support each of the Palestinian claims is sourced from field investigations by the Palestinian government, and reports published by the human rights groups Al Haq, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty worldwide.