A former US marine has accused Israel of treating the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as sub-humans and regarding them as animals.

In an interview with Press TV, Ken O’Keefe was asked about the reason behind the siege that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip.

“In fact...[many animals] will find better care in most Western countries than the people of Gaza find at the hands of the Israeli system, which has systematically looked at them and treated them as sub-humans,” Ken O’Keefe told Press TV from London.

“…We can see historically the treatment of the Palestinians has been nothing short of atrocious; they are treated like sub-humans on every level,” he noted.

“In fact, the entire population of Gaza suffers from one degree to another of post-traumatic stress disorder. The entire population of Gaza is continuously being punished,” O’Keefe said.

“So whatever the Israelis say or don’t say doesn’t change the fact that the people in Gaza are treated worse than many ...[animals] are treated in the world.”

Israel occupied the Palestinian territories of East al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank during the Six-Day War of 1967. Israel conducted a self-proclaimed withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, but Israeli forces have been carrying out regular deadly forays into the sliver ever since the so-called pullout.

Gaza has been blockaded by Israel since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.