Turkey to protect Gaza aid flotilla with warships

Turkey raised the prospect of a naval confrontation with Israel on Friday by announcing that it would deploy warships to protect humanitarian convoys attempting to breach the maritime blockade of Gaza.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, defended the move as a necessary response after Israel refused to apologise for the deaths of nine Turks killed during an operation to intercept a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year.

The threat represented the most dangerous escalation yet in a rapidly deteriorating diplomatic row between the two former allies that has already seen Turkey expel Israel's ambassador and suspend all military ties.

Israel described the latest development as "grave and serious". In a sign that the crisis could deteriorate further, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's hawkish foreign minister, is expected to announce retaliatory action over the weekend.

The Israeli press reported that Mr Lieberman was considering meeting and possibly even financing Turkey's Kurdish rebel movement, a move that would incense Mr Erdogoan's government.

Israel has robustly enforced its maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip, which it says is essential to prevent weapons being smuggled to Hamas, the territory's Islamist overlords. Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists in a violent melee on board the MV Mavi Marmara last year. But Israel refused to apologise for its actions, which it said were vindicated last week by a UN report.