In the early hours of this morning, in international waters in the Mediterranean sea, Israeli naval commandos stormed boats forming the flotilla that left Istanbul last week carrying humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip. Of course, it was always clear that the flotilla was making a political point out of its actions, they wanted to humiliate Israel – but the bottom line is they were delivering things like wheelchairs and building supplies to the Gazan population, who have been living under embargo for years.

Reports are suggesting that so far up to 19 protesters and aid workers on board various vessels have been killed by the Israeli commandos. Whatever your view on Israel, and it is an emotive and complex issue, it’s never okay to use such cold-blooded tactics to shut down a humiliating protest. I don’t know what the intentions of the Israeli Defence Force and Defence Minister Ehud Barak were in authorising this action, but it will only serve to weaken Israel’s already testy moral authority on the world stage.

The use of such heavy handed tools resulting in the deaths of innocent people is unacceptable regardless of any factor, domestic or international, that has led to a long-term feeling of insecurity of a state. What’s more, the attack of civil ships in international waters is an act of piracy. And even if the boats were in Israeli waters, there’s still no grounds for the use of deadly force on unarmed protesters.

We haven’t yet heard statements from the major Western powers. It’s unlikely, to be clear, that Hillary Clinton or William Hague will use tough rhetoric in their statements. Israel, despite all of its recent actions which go against the grain of international cooperation and the efforts of the world to seek a peaceful settlement in the Levant, is still an ally of the West. But the more we see actions like the widespread destruction of humanitarian infrastructure in Lebanon in 2006 when Israel was fighting with Hezbollah, the inhumane treatment of civilians in Gaza and the use of falsified British and other Western passports to assassinate Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai at the start of the year, surely the more tone-deaf the West will become when Israel has a real need for international support.

You can’t use a sledgehammer to break open a walnut. If you do that you’ll smash the walnut. Israel has a strong basis for moral support from the West, but there’s not a lot of goodwill left following a list of shocking actions on behalf of the Israeli state over the last few years. The country is heading for pariah status – perhaps that’s what Israel needs to wake up a desire for change throughout the Israeli population. If there’s no real change in the near future, there will be no goodwill left at all, and it’s Israel which will suffer because of that.

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One final point: let’s not make this an issue of anti-Semitism. You can quite easily criticise the actions of Israel even if you’re a staunch Zionist. There’s no moral or ethical reason to support any and every action carried out by a country you believe in.

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UPDATE: William Hague has issued a statement, calling for Israel to open its blockades of the Gaza Strip and deploring the loss of life on this morning’s raids: http://tinyurl.com/2u66snp.