Turkey has welcomed last night's UN report that found Israel violated human rights and broke the law when its troops stormed a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May.
'The report by the UN Human Rights Council is extremely unbiased and based on sound evidence. We appreciate it,' said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu this morning.
The report found the raid was 'unlawful and resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.'
The panel was nominated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli attack in which nine pro-Palestinian activists - eight Turks and one Turkish American - were killed.
It said that Israel's blockade of Gaza had caused a humanitarian crisis and was unlawful.
The experts - judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner - said in a report that the Israeli military's action had used disproportionate force and 'totally unnecessary and incredible violence' in intercepting the flotilla.
'It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds,' they said in the report, to be submitted to the rights council on 27 September.
'It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.'
The three experts said Israel had a right to security, and the firing of rockets into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza also constituted violations of humanitarian law.
But the Israeli blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment of the civilian population and was not lawful in any circumstances, they said.
The rights experts, who were not allowed to enter Israel, said Israel had refused to cooperate with their mission and called on the Israeli authorities to identify those involved in the violence and prosecute them.
Israel, which says pro-Palestinian activists on the boat were killed when they attacked its commandos, had said from the outset it would not work with the probe by the rights council.
