AID worker Paveen Yaqub has condemned a report stating that Israel acted within international law when its soldiers shot dead nine people aboard a ship carrying aid to war-torn Gaza.

Paveen, from Honley, was on board the Mavi Marmara last May when her friend Furkan Dogan was shot five times at close range and killed.

Another of Paveen’s friends, Our Suleyman, is still in a coma following the attack.

But on Sunday, an Israeli panel cleared the country’s military and government of any wrong doing.

The Turkel commission report said the armed defence of Israel’s maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal strip was “justified under international law” and Israeli commandos had acted in “self-defence”.

Nine Turkish activists died in the siege and the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has rejected the conclusions of the commission as having “no value or credibility”.

Paveen, 39, told the Examiner: “It’s like asking any criminal accused of mass murder to investigate themselves, present their own evidence and clear themselves.

“Israel wasn’t prepared to allow an independent UN investigation and this report has been a total whitewash.”

The 280-page report broadly endorsed the Israeli military and government versions of events.

And it said that Israeli naval commandos were met with violence when they boarded the lead ship in the flotilla.

Paveen, a former Oldham Council employee, said: “There has obviously been a lot of anger and outrage and disgust from a lot of people.

“But I have had a strange reaction because I didn’t expect anything less from Israel.

“We knew what to expect – especially with Israel’s track record – and I’m glad the report has finally come because we’ve been waiting months for it.”

Paveen, who is still traumatised following events on the ship, said she isn’t angry.

She explained: “I don’t want to be distracted from the key issue here.

“There’s a place for anger in this situation – of course after what’s happened – but we can’t forget the people who have died. Their deaths have got to be looked at in a positive and constructive way.

“Hate doesn’t solve anything. People ask me – why aren’t you full of hate and anger for them?

“But I’ve been up-close to the Israeli soldiers and I’ve seen nothing but hatred in their eyes and I don’t ever want to have that level of hatred inside me, ever.

“I have to use my energy more constructively.

“We live in a democracy in the UK and we’ve got to use our democratic processes to challenge crimes against humanity and war crimes – that’s what I’m concentrating on .”

Paveen has given up her job at Oldham Council and is now a full-time activist.

She plans to join another aid flotilla to Gaza this year.