A PRO-PALESTINIAN activist and Chester bar owner believes Gaza-bound aid workers killed by Israeli soldiers have not died in vain.

Rod Cox, co-owner of Alexander’s Jazz Theatre Bar, was part of the second ever aid flotilla to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory in 2008.

In 2009 he joined an overland humanitarian mission involving former Respect MP George Galloway to deliver medical supplies to Gaza.

Mr Cox, who paid tribute to the deceased aid workers, said: “I think this marks a turning point in diplomatic relations with Israel. There is a strong undercurrent against Israel.”

He said the attack on the Turkish-flagged aid ship had upset Turkey, whose influence was growing as a strategically important ally to the West while Israel was becoming a less useful partner.

“Israel is beginning to be a nuisance to America that doesn’t serve any useful purpose,” said Mr Cox, who said Israel was under pressure to change.

“Israel has constantly expanded through war, aggression and ethnic-cleansing and people have been on the receiving end for 100 years so it’s hardly surprising if they fight back.”

The Gaza Strip is just 40km long and 10km wide, and home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

Egypt administered the Strip for 19 years after 1948, but Israel captured it during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Gaza has been under Israeli control since then.

In 2005 Israel pulled its troops out of Gaza, along with thousands of Jewish settlers. As far as Israel was concerned that was the end of the occupation.

But that has not been accepted internationally as Israel still exercises control over most of Gaza’s land borders, as well as its territorial waters and airspace.