By IRNA,
London : The British government is unwilling to say whether last month’s attack by Israel in international waters on a UK-registered Jewish boat taking aid to Gaza was illegal.
“We are unable to comment on whether or when legal advice has been sought/given,” Foreign Office Minster Lord Howell said in a written parliamentary reply published Wednesday.
“We followed this incident closely, that our consular staff remained in regular contact with the families of those British Nationals on board and that we offered consular assistance to the British participants on arrival in Israel,” Howell said.
The minister was replying to a written question from Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Tonge, who asked what legal advice the government received concerning the interception of the British registered boat in international waters, when carrying Jewish people towards Gaza.
Organisers of the boat, Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) condemned the attack, which it said took place outside Gaza’s 12 nautical miles of territories waters.
British freelance photo-journalist Vish Vishvanath, travelling on the boat, also said it was illegal for Israel troops to have forcefully taken over control and took down the British flag it was flying.
After returning to the UK, British captain Glyn Secker A British captain, deported from Israel, has returned to the UK, related the extent of the violence used by the Israeli forces in seizing a Jewish boat seeking to break the three-year siege of Gaza.
“It was only luck that there were not more deaths and another public relations disaster for Israel,” Secker said. The attack on the nine crew and passengers “violent, reckless and very dangerous” as well as being “illegal,” he said.
In his reply, Howell referred to the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May, when masked Israeli commandoes gunned down nine passengers on Mavi Marmara.
“We have repeatedly made it clear to Israel that it is a matter of grave concern that Israeli actions should have ended in such heavy and tragic loss of life,” he said.