South African archbishop Desmond Tutu was sent to Gaza earlier this week by the UN Human Rights Council to lead a long-awaited investigation into the shelling of a Palestinian house in Beit Hanoun by Israeli security forces, in which 19 members of a the same family were killed in November 2006. Archbishop Tutu was sent only days after the incident in 2006 to conduct the inquiry, but was denied a visa by the Israeli government who said the council would politicize the issue by criticizing Israel.

Tutu and his team visited Beit Hanoun on Wednesday to interview witnesses of the attack. In 2006, the Israeli military drastically reduced their ’safety’ margins, despite being warned of an inevitable increase in Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries. This resulted in 19 members of the Athamna extended family being killed by Israeli tank shells as they slept. Tutu will prepare a report to present to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

All 19 of those killed were asleep in their house when the shells struck early in the morning. 14 of the 19 Athamna family members killed were women and children. As the family poured out of their house they were hit by six or seven waves of Israeli shells. The massacre came only a day after the Israeli military had ended an illegal six-day incursion into the town, which had left another 50 Palestinians dead.

After much delay and obstruction, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Archbishop Tutu was finally granted a visa to enter through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Tutu said the 2006 incident was a “violation of human rights in the fact that civilians were targeted,” and also came out against the current Israeli blockade on Gaza, which he said had turned the occupied territory into a “desolate and scary” place.

The blockade, which has resulted in shortages of fuel and basic goods, is a form of collective punishment which Tutu has described as another “gross violation of human rights”. Tutu also said that from his experience in South Africa as an anti-apartheid activist, that “peace came when former enemies sat down to talk”.

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