Iranian MPs Plan to Visit Gaza


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A six-member panel of Iranian parliamentarians is scheduled to travel to the Gaza Strip for humanitarian purposes.

Hassan Kamran, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told the Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday that he, along with 5 other MPs, will pay a 10-day visit to Gaza in the near future.

Among the main purposes of the forthcoming trip, he said, are visiting the bereaved families of victims of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip and finding ways to dispatch humanitarian assistance to the war-torn enclave.

He said consultations with the Foreign Ministry are now underway to set an exact date for the trip.
30 legislators had initially volunteered for the journey, but only 6 were chosen after a drawing, Kamran explained.

The lawmaker had announced earlier that the visit to Gaza is part of a plan to send a humanitarian aid convoy to the blockaded area, noting that the convoy would take the aid supplies provided by Iranian nation as well as Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS).

Gaza Strip –the small enclave of 41 kilometers long with 1.8 million Muslim residents- has been under Israeli attacks since July 8 as the occupying regime has started a new wave of assaults on defenseless Palestinians following fiascos in 2005 and 2008 when the Israelis had to stop their aggression due to strong resistance of people in Gaza.

Around 650 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 have been wounded in the 16-day Israeli onslaught.