U.S. lawmakers make rare visit to Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - The highest-ranking U.S. delegation to visit the Gaza Strip in years toured bomb-damaged buildings on Thursday and blamed the enclave's Hamas rulers for provoking Israel's wrath with cross-border rocket attacks.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and two members of the House of Representatives, Brian Baird and Keith Ellison, shunned Hamas during tours one month after Israel ended its 22-day Gaza offensive.

It was the highest-level visit by U.S. legislators to the Gaza Strip since a Palestinian uprising against Israel erupted in 2000, U.S. officials in the region said. Kerry, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for president in 2004, earlier toured the Israeli border town of Sderot, a frequent target of rockets.

During his visit to a U.N. compound in Gaza, Kerry was given a letter from Hamas to deliver to President Barack Obama.

UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said the letter had been left for Kerry at the gate of the compound and that he did not know the content. "We don't open other people's mail," Gunness said. Kerry's office had no immediate comment.

Though major fighting has stopped, tensions remain high. Israel bombed smuggling tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt and militants fired a rocket that landed near Sderot.

During his visit to Gaza, Kerry, a member of Obama's Democratic party, toured the bombed-out American School and asked administrators whether Israel was letting in enough supplies for the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents.

Israel allows humanitarian aid into the impoverished enclave but has ruled out fully opening its border crossings to materials needed for reconstruction until Hamas frees an Israeli soldier captured in a 2006 cross-border raid.