PROTESTERS were tonight holding a peace vigil at Carfax, Oxford, over the Israeli attack on an aid flotilla heading to the Gaza Strip.

And Oxford father-of-four Shahzad Sarwar, 42, who travelled to the territory last year as part of a aid convoy, is waiting for news of friends caught up in the incident, during which nine people died.

Mr Sarwar, from Headington, drove an old ambulance bought by the city’s Muslim community out to the Palestinian territory. He said some of those who travelled with him had been part of the aid convoy.

“We are just waiting to see if these people are okay,” he said. “The reports so far are they were beaten pretty severely and treated like prisoners, even though they were in international waters.

“We are only getting one side of the story from the Israeli media.”

Yesterday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said 34 British nationals were involved in Sunday’s incident, rather than the 37 originally reported.

Mr Sarwar added: “The quicker they get released the quicker we can build up a picture of what has happened.”

He is now checking Facebook and other websites for news of his friends’ whereabouts.