Israel's ambassador in Madrid provoked outrage this morning by suggesting Spaniards should worry more about the number of people dying on the roads every weekend and less about the nine people killed in his country's raid on the Gaza flotilla.

"Yes, nine people have died. But 155 died in a terrorist attack in India last week. Who cares about that? Have you heard anything about it? Twenty-three Spaniards died on the roads this weekend," Raphael Schutz told El Periódico newspaper.

An embassy spokesman, Lior Haiat, said comments had been taken out of context and the ambassador had been referring to Spanish media coverage. "Of course we care about any deaths," said Haiat, who claimed the flotilla carried 100 Turkish mercenaries. "Even when they are mercenaries and terrorists."

In an interview published in Spanish, Schutz compared the Gaza flotilla activists to the radical Islamist train bombers who killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains in 2004.

"We are talking about people on board [the flotilla] who are connected to al-Qaida," he said when El Periódico's interviewer pointed out that the Madrid attacks had been carried out by al-Qaida-inspired terrorists. "Fifty of the people who left Turkey are known for their connections with Hamas, with al-Qaida. Are these people pacifists?". They hide behind a few Europeans."