ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Thousands of mourners hailed activists killed in an Israeli commando mission as martyrs yesterday, hoisting their coffins to cheers of “God is great”, while Turkish leaders said Israel had jeopardised its relationship with its closest Muslim ally despite meeting Ankara’s demand to release the hundreds captured in the raid.

The father of the youngest of the nine activists killed — 19-year-old high school student Furkan Dogan, who had dual US-Turkish citizenship — praised his son for dying in a just cause.

Ahmet Dogan told the state-run Anatolia news agency he identified his boy in the morgue and he had been shot through the forehead. Still, he said, the family was not sad because they believed Furkan had died with honour.

“I feel my son has been blessed with heaven,” he said. “I am hoping to be a father worthy of my son.”

Dogan, who was born in Troy, New York, moved to Turkey when he was two.

He was one of eight activists mourned at the massive funeral in Istanbul, which came as Israel rejected demands for an international panel to investigate its deadly takeover Monday of six aid ships trying to break Israel’s three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hotly rejected calls to lift the blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, insisting it prevents missile attacks on Israel.

The incident has increased tensions in the Mideast, especially with Turkey, an important ally of Israel. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday called Israel’s actions “a historic mistake”.

“Israel risks losing its most important friend in the region if it doesn’t change its mentality,” he said, adding later that “from now on we will not bow to this bullying”.

President Abdullah Gul said Israel committed “one of the biggest mistakes ever in its history”.

“Turkey will never forget this attack,” Gul said. “The relations between Israel and Turkey will never be the same again.”

At yesterday’s funeral, 10,000 people prayed outside Istanbul’s Fatih mosque before eight Turkish and Palestinian flag-draped coffins lined up in a row.