November 13, 2008	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1429

LONDON, Nov 12: An international delegation on its return on Wednesday after a three-day visit to Gaza Strip expressed pain and sadness over what its leader Lord Nazir said the scale of human suffering in the territory.

The delegation, comprising former UK international development minister Rt. Hon. Clare Short, MP and Baroness Jenny Tonge, conducted a number of visits to schools, hospitals and refugee camps in the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Nothing would have prepared us to comprehend the enormity of this catastrophe which is entirely man-made”, Lord Nazir added.

During their stay in Gaza the parliamentarians met a number of civil society bodies as well as international humanitarian agencies prominent among them the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Officials from the agency conveyed their deep fears about their ability to continue providing vital health and relief services to the eight refugee camps in the territory. Eighty-three per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million population are refugees expelled from their homes by Israel in 1948 and 1967. In defiance of international law Israel denies them the right to return.

Speaking shortly before her departure from Gaza Clare Short said: ‘Despite their desperately tragic circumstances we were immensely heartened by the determination of the Palestinians in Gaza to develop and preserve their hard-won democratic gains’.

Meanwhile, head of the European Campaign to End the Siege Dr Arafat Shoukri said the parliamentarians and Campaign members would soon release a detailed report of their visit.