PROTESTERS gathered in the centre of York to voice their anger after up to 15 people were killed and 50 injured when Israeli commandos stormed a convoy of aid ships to the Gaza Strip.

The Parliament Street demonstration was hurriedly arranged after armed forces boarded the vessels on Sunday night and clashed with some of the 600 people aboard, with the European Union now calling for an inquiry into the tragedy.

The flotilla of six ships, which was carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid, had been due to arrive in Gaza yesterday after leaving Cyprus.

Israel has hit back by claiming ten of its soldiers were injured, one seriously.

Heather Stroud, a member of the York Palestine Solidarity Campaign, joined a convoy organised through the international Viva Palestina movement which took medical supplies to the area at the end of last year. Yesterday she said: “We feel absolutely outraged about what has happened.

“The Israelis are trying to make themselves out to be the victims and hide the reality of what they are doing. Some of those caught up in this incident are people we met when we took medical supplies to Palestine and there is a lot of anger and shock about this.

“The purpose of the demonstration is to provide as much information about what has happened and try to let people know what is really going on there, because the international community seems to be going along with the Israeli version of what happened.”

Israel had repeatedly said it would stop the boats travelling to their destination, branding the campaign a “provocation”, but Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas says Israel had carried out “a massacre”.

Most of the people on the boats which were boarded were Turkish, and Turkey has condemned “the inhumane practices of Israel”.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said the British embassy was in “urgent contact” with the Israeli government, asking for information “and urgent access to any UK nationals involved”. He said: “I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza flotilla.”