The UN Security Council must take measures to punish those guilty for the deaths of people when Israel raided a number of ships in neutral waters that were bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.
Davutoglu, who is at the United Nations, said Israel must also apologize to the world community and the families for those who were killed on board the ship, and that Israel must immediately lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
"Israel must be prepared to face consequences of its illegal actions. Turkey calls on the people and government of Israel to refrain from repeating such unacceptable steps in the future," the foreign minister said during an extraordinary session at the UN.
The Israeli military stormed the Turkish-flagged six-ship Freedom Flotilla carrying some 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza and 600 human rights activists earlier on Monday.
The international community, presidential administrations and world leaders have strongly criticized the Israeli raid on ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip in which at least 10 people were killed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday accused Israel of state terrorism following the attack in neutral waters on the international aid convoy.
"No matter what Israel says its motives were, what they did was [an act of] state terrorism," he said in a national address on Turkish television adding that Turkey demands immediate release of its vessel which was taken hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is currently in Canada, has cancelled a planned meeting with the U.S. President Obama over a growing international crisis sparked by the attack.
The Israeli military admitted that it intercepted the international aid ship en route to the Gaza Strip in neutral waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged vessel with hundreds of human rights activists by storm on Monday, killing at least 10.
"It happened in international waters, we confirm this," an Israeli Army spokesman told RIA Novosti, adding: "We did it there because we did not know what was happening on the ships and suspected there were explosives and other weapons on board."
In all, there were six vessels in the flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid.
Israel has confiscated the vessel and is escorting it to the port of Ashdod, and will deport the activists on board, and send the humanitarian aid by land once it has been inspected.
UN, May 31 (RIA Novosti)
