Israeli commandos shot passengers at the rate of one a minute during the bloody raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, a Briton on board the main vessel said today.

PRO-PALESTINIAN activists sent another boat to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip yesterday and Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists.

The UN Security Council’s emergency meeting last night, the Palestinians and Arab nations, backed by a number of council members including Turkey, called for an independent and impartial investigation and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.

A former US ambassador aboard a Gaza aid ship seized by Israeli commandos is on his way home.

Israeli commandos today stormed six ships carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on an aid mission to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more.

Israeli gunships were standing by today to stop a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists from reaching the Gaza Strip, setting the stage for what could become a dramatic showdown on the high seas.

Two Irish people are among a group of 21 human rights activists being held by the Israeli authorities for trying to bring humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.

THE Israeli navy ordered a small ferry carrying medical supplies and foreign peace activists to Gaza to turn back, a spokesman for the group said yesterday.

Israel is to allow a pro-Palestinian activist group to sail two boats carrying humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip, after earlier hinting it would block the shipment from reaching the coastal territory.