Visiting South African Nobel Peace prize winner Father Desmond Tutu on Wednesday called on Israel to end the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Tutu, former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town who is leading a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip to investigate the killing of 19 Palestinian civilians in an Israeli attack in November 2006, made the call while speaking to reporters during a visit in Beit Hanounis of the strip.
In November 2006, an Israeli tank fired three tanks shells that hit several houses belong to al-Athamna family in the town of Beit Hanoun near the border between northern Gaza Strip and Israel.
"What I have seen and heard is bigger than the ability of human beings to conceive. The blockade, which is imposed on the Gaza Strip, is illegal and should immediately stop," Tutu told the reporters.
Tutu, who met with pro-Hamas mayor of the town Mohamed al-Kafarna, conveyed his deep sorrow and condolences to the family that lost 18 of its members, most of them women and children.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tutu also met with deposed prime minister of Hamas Ismail Haneya in Gaza and urged Hamas leaders to stop rocket attacks by Gaza militants against Israel.
Calling the situation in Gaza that is under a tight Israeli blockade as "unacceptable," Tutu said that "the incident we are meant to investigate was a violation of human rights in the fact that civilians were targeted."
Source:Xinhua
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