WASHINGTON - Rep. Keith Ellison, one of the first high-level U.S. officials to enter the Gaza Strip in more than three years, said he is haunted by the scenes of destruction from Israel's recent military incursion.
"I have an image of a woman sitting in the rubble of her home burned in my head," the Minnesota Democrat said by cell phone Thursday on his way back to an Israeli checkpoint.
Ellison, who met with Gaza civilians and relief workers for about nine hours Thursday, said he was not there to assign blame for the violence, though he said the civilian devastation he witnessed was hard for him to understand.
Today, he plans to tour the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon, which have been targets of numerous rocket attacks by Hamas forces in Gaza.
"I've always believed we need to resolve this thing by diplomacy," said Ellison. "I'm even more convinced of that now."
The trip came amid heightened tensions as Israel declared that it would not open the Gaza Strip's border crossings until Hamas insurgents freed a captured Israeli soldier. Ellison's visit did not have the official sanction of the Obama administration, and the U.S. State Department warned him about its security concerns.
For Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, the trip is the latest in a series of visits he has made to the Mideast.
Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said he is interested in learning how Ellison's trip will shape his views about Israel's conflict with Hamas. "We'll look forward to speaking with him upon his return," Hunegs said.
