UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visited Gaza on Tuesday, where he lamented the "serious destruction" in the Hamas-controlled region which he said was worse than what happened in Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
"The destruction which I have seen while coming to here is beyond description. This is a much more serious destruction than what I saw in 2009," Ban stated to AFP reporters. "I'd like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to people who lost their lives... and loved ones."
Ban sparked fury in the Israeli public and political echelon on Sunday, after he called "the occupation" in Gaza the "root cause" of Israel's self-defense operation over the summer - instead of Hamas's firing thousands of rockets on Israeli civilians.
Ban's comments elicited outrage from multiple sources, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
“The Secretary-General showed a stunning lack of objectivity on the issues surrounding the reasons for the recent violence in Gaza and inexplicable silence when it came to the Palestinian policies and actions which brought us to this point in the first place,” ADL National Director Abe Foxman stated earlier Tuesday. “Mr. Ban’s failure to publicly call on Palestinians to reject violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist and avoid actions which might undermine the hope for reconciliation sends precisely the wrong message. It encourages Palestinian unilateral steps and conveys to Hamas there are no consequences for its murderous terrorism.”
On Monday, Netanyahu blasted Ban over the remarks, noting they stem from a misconception of the facts.
"The root cause of the violence that burst from Gaza is not Israel’s occupation in Gaza, for a simple reason: Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza," Netanyahu explained. "Israel left Gaza to the very last centimeter, to the very last inch. We uprooted all the settlements and vacated all the settlers. So there is no Israeli occupation of Gaza."
Gil Ronen contributed to this report.