PLO apologizes to UN chief

The PLO leadership apologized Thursday for the "strange" welcome UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon received upon arriving in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of people threw shoes and stones at the UN chief's convoy as it entered Gaza, a Ma'an reporter said. No one was injured. In a statement, the PLO executive committee said that Palestinians are hospitable people who welcome officials coming to the occupied territories to see the "suffering and crimes" committed by Israel. The committee added that it respects Ban's role supporting Palestinian rights. It called on Palestinians to stop such behavior "contrary to the Palestinian tradition of hospitality." In Gaza, Ban played down the incident at a news conference. "I thank the people of Gaza for the warm welcome," he said, provoking laughter among local journalists. "I met many people who were waiting for me at the entrance." Many of those who protested as the UN convoy passed were family members of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. They hit the vehicles with signs bearing slogans accusing Ban of bias towards Israel and of refusing to meet the relatives of Palestinian prisoners. A spokesman for deportees from the Israeli siege of Bethlehem's Nativity church in 2002 called on Ban to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, including detainees and deportees. A number of Gazans whose homes were destroyed in Israel's war on the coastal enclave in 2008 held up signs reading "Gaza is living in darkness," and "Save the children of Gaza," a Ma'an reporter witnessed.