Israel has "significantly contributed" to improving Palestinian health, according to a leading medical expert.

Professor David Stone said there had been allegations in medical journals that Israel had systematically damaged Palestinian health since the 1967 war.

He said: "Infant mortality is a key figure for analysing the overall healthcare of a population. I was able to show that the steep declines in infant mortality in the West Bank and Gaza were in very much the same order as in Israel and surrounding countries."

Prof Stone, emeritus professor of paediatric epidemiology at Glasgow University, also noted that immunisation coverage among Palestinians was comparable with Israelis.

His remarks came as around 40 doctors from Europe and Israel attended the European Jewish Medical Forum in London, hosted by the Jewish Medical Association and the World Fellowship of the Israeli Medical Association.

Dr Zeev Feldman, of Tel Aviv's Sheba Academic Medical Centre, said he and his compatriots faced protests when they visited foreign campuses and felt "under attack" simply for being Israeli.