Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas charged Israel of "state terrorism" Wednesday for attacking the flotilla carrying aid to blockaded Gaza.
"Our people were subjected to state terrorism" when Israeli commandos attacked the "Freedom Flotilla" in international water, he said during the opening session of the second Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem.
In a move that has drawn harsh criticism from across the world, the Israeli navy attacked a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza in an operation that left at least nine activists dead.
"The flotilla came from the West to break the siege on Gaza," Abbas said. "The freedom convoy here has come to break the economic blockade on the Palestinian people," he added.
"This is not the first time where Arab and Islamic blood mixes with Palestinian blood in the history of this conflict," Abbas said. "The Freedom Flotilla is not the first serious attempt to support the Palestinian people and break the siege and it will not be the last."
Abbas continued by calling for a United Nations Security Council-led investigation into the Israeli attack, telling his fellow Arabs, "There should be a united Arab stand to end the siege of Gaza."
"How long will this Israeli occupation continue?" he asked.
The Palestinian leader is scheduled to meet with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell later who is heading the US delegation to investment conference.
"We are waiting for world justice," Abbas said. "We waited for a long time but we will not despair."
