They are the generation who protested in the 1960s and have girded themselves again to campaign for Palestinian rights. The Free Gaza movement, which chartered the Challenger yacht as part of the flotilla that was attacked by Israel on Monday, is led by a group of women of pensionable age.

Founding members of the organisation, which is also operating the MV Rachel Corrie, include a US-based 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein, and a 76-year-old grandmother originally from Bolton, Mary Hughes.

The four activists running Free Gaza's communications and legal operations from Cyprus during the flotilla are all women aged between 65 and 85.

"Part of it could be because we are children of the 1960s and we came out of the anti-Vietnam movement," said Greta Berlin, 69, also one of the founding members. Speaking from Bolton, Mary Hughes's brother, Brian Thompson, said he had not heard from her since an email last week. "Mary isn't a political person. This is not an anti-Israel stance she is taking, it is a humanitarian one," he said.