UN envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair has piled more pressure onto Israel, following the country's raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza.
Mr Blair has urged the Israeli Government to lift the blockade on the Gaza strip, saying that the edict was "counter-productive."
He said: "I've been calling for a change in policy in Gaza to open the crossings for goods that should come into Gaza to help the people there for the best part of two years. So I don't think it's simply as a result of this incident, I just think the policy in Gaza is counter-productive and what we should be doing is allowing material in that rebuilds homes and sanitation and power and water systems."
Late on Wednesday, Gaza residents held a demonstration commemorating activists who died during the Israeli raid on the flotilla.
Some 700 activists were seized after Israeli marines intercepted the flotilla of ships in Mediterranean waters on Monday (May 31), as it headed to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza which has been under Israeli blockade since 2006.
Among those detained from the flotilla, the majority were Turkish as well as Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Kuwaiti. The international flotilla also included Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Asians and many Europeans - among them politicians - and a Swedish author.
