UN team 'devastated' by Gaza stories: Tutu

From AFP:

UN human rights observers led by Desmond Tutu on Wednesday met survivors of a 2006 Israeli bombing that killed 19 Palestinian civilians in Gaza, leading the South African cleric to say the group was "devastated" by what they learned.

The UN team travelled to the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza where residents told of the Israeli shelling on the night of November 8, 2006, that killed the civilians, including five women and eight children, in their homes.

"I was here with my son. I was holding his hand when he died. Can you imagine a mother holding the intestines of her own son," said Tahini al-Assamna through her tears, describing the attack.

She took Tutu and his UN team on a tour of her three-storey house where a hole still remains in the roof from the artillery fire. She also lost three of her brothers-in-law in the attack.

Tutu commented that the purpose of the visit was to gather information to write a report for the UN Human Rights Council, "but we wanted to say that we are quite devastated".

"This is not something you want to wish on your worst enemy," added the retired Anglican archbishop of Cape Town.

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