Israel condemns flotilla protesters

ISRAELI foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said participants in an aid flotilla planning to challenge an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip were seeking “confrontation and blood”.

Pro-Palestinian activists say around a dozen ships carrying aid to Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas Islamists, could depart from European ports in the coming days.

A year ago, nine Turkish activists, including a dual US-Turkish national, were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers who raided a Gaza-bound convoy in the eastern Mediterranean.