NEW YORK, -- John Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has denounced the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla that was heading to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.

Holmes in a press statement on Tuesday said that regardless of the circumstances that led to the incident, in which dozens of solidarity activists on board that Flotilla were killed or injured, such a situation should not have occurred.

He said that the siege imposed on Gaza since 2007 was not acceptable or necessary ever since its imposition, adding that it led to the worsening of the living conditions of one and a half million Palestinians.

The UN official noted that the siege led to the spread of poverty, lack of food security, blocked reconstruction, increased the people's reliance on humanitarian aid, and wiped out the Strip's economy.

Holmes called for seizing the opportunity of that crisis to end the collective punishment on the Gaza people once and for all.