Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret after at least nine people died when troops stormed ships trying to break the Gaza blockade.

But he said soldiers had been defending themselves after they were "clubbed, beaten and stabbed".

Pro-Palestinian campaigners say the soldiers opened fire unprovoked when they landed on the aid-carrying ships.

There has been international condemnation of the loss of life, and the UN is holding an emergency session.

As the meeting of the UN Security Council got under way in New York, diplomats said the draft text of a resolution called for condemnation of the operation, the immediate release of the impounded ships and for an international inquiry.

Israel faces flotilla raid fallout

Mr Netanyahu cut short a visit to Canada to deal with the growing crisis and cancelled a scheduled meeting in Washington with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Islamist movement Hamas took power there in 2007.

The six-ship convoy had set out to carry 10,000 tonnes of aid from Cyprus to Gaza, despite repeated Israeli warnings that it would not be allowed to reach the territory.

In a statement, Mr Netanyahu defended the Israeli operation, saying troops were attacked when they landed on the largest of the six ships in the flotilla.

"They were mobbed. They were clubbed, they were beaten, stabbed," he said.

"There was even a report of gunfire and our soldiers had to defend themselves, defend their lives or they would have been killed.

"Regrettably, in this exchange... people died. We regret this loss of life. We regret any of the violence."

'Paintball' rifles

The incident, therefore, is more than just a clash at sea. It calls into question Israel's wider approach to Gaza, and indeed the faltering peace process itself - now centred on the proximity talks brokered by the Americans.
Israeli commandos storming the Gaza flotilla TV footage showed Israeli commandos storming the Gaza flotilla

Israel is again on the defensive, deploying all its available means of information to state that the pro-Palestinian activists (pro-Hamas, according to Israel) attacked the commandos and are to blame for the deaths. The ships, Israel says, could have landed at Ashdod with the goods sent on to Gaza.

The activists claim that this was at least disproportionate, and at worst murderous.

Beyond the public recriminations, military professionals everywhere will want to understand how Israeli commandos were unable to gain control without what appears to have been an extensive use of live fire.

Video released by the Israeli military shows individual commandos rappelling on to the ship from helicopters and, in one case at least, being outnumbered and attacked by several people on board the ship.

The video appears to show one of the activists charging commandos (it is difficult to distinguish between solders and civilians) with a long metal pole. Video on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website shows hand-held catapults, metal rods, bags of marbles and a hammer found on the ship.

An account of the clash by an Israeli reporter on ynetnews said that the "navy commandos fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members".

He wrote that the troops had "paintball" rifles which made no impression. They then used stun grenades. They were not expecting such opposition, he said.

One soldier had his handgun seized and was knocked unconscious, according to the report. After that the order to use live fire was given. The report quoted one commando as saying that someone with a rifle fired at them.