Tutu Calls Gaza Deaths A Massacre

JERUSALEM — Desmond Tutu, a leader of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, completed a three-day mission to the Gaza Strip yesterday by describing Israel's killing of 18 Palestinian Arabs as a massacre.

The Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, who has a long record of attacking Israel, said the deaths, in the town of Beit Hanoun in November 2006, had shocked members of his mission.

The archbishop visited the place where 18 people from the al-Athamna family, including 14 women and children, were killed by Israeli artillery fire. He said that hearing "from the survivors of the massacre" had left him in a "state of shock."

Israeli shells destroyed two houses while the al-Athamna family slept inside. Those who survived the first barrage and manage to flee into the street were cut down when the shells kept falling.