Gaza City - Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday for rare talks with leaders of the otherwise internationally shunned radical Islamist movement. Entering through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing, north of Gaza City, Carter's convoy immediately proceeded to north-east Gaza to inspect the damage caused to houses and industrial zones during Israel's three-week military offensive of last winter.
Carter, the highest-ranking former diplomat to hold talks with Hamas in Gaza, is scheduled to meet de-facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Hamas lawmakers in the afternoon.
He plans to hand Hamas a letter from the family of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza since June 2006, whose father he met in Jerusalem on Friday.
Hamas said it would "consider" passing the letter on to its captive.
Before the scheduled meeting with Hamas, Carter is scheduled to visit a Palestinian hospital and meet officials from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza after the Israeli offensive that was launched December 27 in a bid to curb rocket attacks from the coastal enclave and ended on January 13. He did not however meet with Hamas leaders. Former British prime minister Tony Blair also visited Gaza on Monday, without talking to Hamas.
In 2007, Hamas, which beat the secular Fatah party of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in parliamentary elections a year earlier, seized sole control of Gaza by violently ousting security forces of the western-backed Abbas.
The US and European Union barred official talks with Hamas, demanding it first recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and endorse passed interim Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.
