GAZA (Reuters) – The highest-ranking U.S. delegation to visit the Gaza Strip in years toured bomb-damaged buildings Thursday.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and two members of the House of Representatives, Brian Baird and Keith Ellison, came to the Strip one month after Israel ended its 22-day merciless Gaza offensive in which Zionists killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, destroyed some 5,000 homes and ruined much of Gaza's infrastructure.
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.
During his visit to a UN 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.
However, Hamas denied on Friday it had given U.S. Senator John Kerry a letter for President Barack Obama.
“Hamas denies any such thing had happened. No letter was given to John Kerry,” said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamic resistance movement.
“At the same time we stress that we are open to hold dialogue with any country and our only enemy is the Zionist occupation,” Barhoum said.
Though major fighting has stopped, tensions remain high. Israel bombed tunnels, which are like jugular vein for economy, along Gaza's border with Egypt.
During his visit to Gaza, Kerry, a member of Obama's Democratic party, toured the bombed-out American School by Israeli forces and asked administrators whether Zionist regime was letting in enough supplies for the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents.
Israel allows some 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.
“I know President Obama is committed to trying to resolve some very, very difficult issues,” said Kerry, escorted by UN security personnel during his brief tour of the school.
Sharhabeel al-Zaeem, a member of the school's board, told Kerry that Israel was supplying only “the minimum” of what was needed and complained that ordinary Palestinians felt isolated because of the Israeli-led and Western-backed heartless blockade of Gaza.
As chairman of the Senate committee, Kerry can influence U.S. foreign policy and aid.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum described Kerry's visit as a “step in the right direction to end the isolation of the Gaza Strip” but described his comments about Hamas as “unfair to the democratic choice of the Palestinian people.” -