Israel has responded furiously to a Nazi jibe made by Fidel Castro.

The former Cuban president said that the “Fuhrer's swastika is today Israel's banner” and likened the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians with the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust.

He said: "The hatred felt by the state of Israel against the Palestinians is such that they would not hesitate to send the one and a half million men, women and children of that country to the crematoria where millions of Jews of all ages were exterminated by the Nazis.”

The statement was unofficially issued to the United Nations Human Rights Council as it convened to discuss the clash on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denounced the comments as “outrageous”.

He added: “Fidel Castro shames his old-time companions and the ideals he always pretended to serve.

“Che Guevara must be spinning in his grave.”

Before the communist revolution of 1959 Cuba was home to a community of around 15,000 Jews. It has now shrunk to just 1,500.