South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu denounced the international community’s silence and complicity over the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip. Tutu, the Anglican archbishop, who played a leading role in the struggle against South African Apartheid, was in the UN fact-finding mission to the impoverished Palestinian territory. Tutu met relatives of 19 civilians killed in the Israeli shelling of two houses in Beit Hanoun and is due to report his findings to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In November 2006, Israeli troops blasted several Palestinian houses in the northern Gaza Strip city with artillery shells and killed 19 members of one family. The UN fact finding mission had originally tried to arrive in Gaza one month after the attack, but the Israeli government prevented them three times. Tutu then decided to settle for a visit to Beit Hanoun. Tutu arrived in Gaza after travelling through Egypt, and entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing. Tutu said he came to Gaza after 18 months following Israel’s continued refusal to allow him to visit the Strip to investigate the massacre.
TUTU FINDS WORLD COMMUNITY COMPLICIT IN GAZA CRIME
South African Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu denounced the international community’s silence and complicity over the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip.
