U.S. lawmakers tour Gaza Strip, view aftermath of Israel's offensive

JERUSALEM — For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. lawmakers toured the battle-scarred Gaza Strip on Thursday in a visit that came as the new Obama administration is developing its diplomatic priorities for the Middle East.

The short, separate tours by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and two other lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., marked the first time high-level U.S. officials have entered Gaza since the hard-line Islamist movement Hamas seized control in 2007.

It also was the first time that U.S. lawmakers had gone to Gaza since the second Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

Before entering Gaza, Kerry made it clear his visit didn't mean the new administration was preparing to reverse course and talk to Hamas leaders, who refuse to renounce their long-standing pledge to destroy Israel. None of the lawmakers met with Hamas leaders during the tours of Gaza.

Accompanied by U.N. escorts, Kerry said he was in Gaza to view the aftermath of Israel's recent military offensive against Hamas. The operation killed some 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, caused widespread destruction and left thousands homeless.

"Let me make this clear, there is no change in policy," said Kerry. "I am here to listen with the U.N. personnel on the ground. The things we need to do is to improve the situation in the region."

Before the U.S. visit, Gaza militants fired two rockets that landed without causing significant damage in southern Israel. The Israeli military responded by attacking the network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.

"Hamas has to change its policies," Kerry said while he toured Gaza's American International School, a private school that Israeli airstrikes destroyed in January.

He also visited a neighborhood in northern Gaza where dozens of homes were flattened and spoke to residents. His Mideast tour, which will take him to Syria this weekend, is being watched closely by Middle East policymakers and U.S. analysts, who are waiting to see whether President Obama follows through on his pledge to make Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking a top priority.

On their separate visit, Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Baird expressed shock at the damage they saw in Gaza.

"It is heartbreaking," Baird said. "It is far worse than we had imagined, and we had imagined that it would be very, very bad."

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said it was important for U.S. lawmakers to hear firsthand about the damage in Gaza. "I'm sad to tell you that it was probably American-made weaponry that did this," Ellison said during his visit. "I'm not proud of that."

The lawmakers' Gaza visit came as Israeli political leaders are embroiled in a standoff over who'll lead the next coalition government.

Benjamin Netanyahu looked poised to become Israel's next prime minister after earning the endorsement Thursday of Avigdor Lieberman, head of the far-right party Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home).

President Shimon Peres has yet to decide who should form Israel's next government. After conferring with Peres, Lieberman expressed support for a government led by Netanyahu's conservative Likud Party but also urged that the government include Kadima, the centrist party led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Lieberman did not rule out participating in a narrow, right-wing government, however, and that looked like a real possibility because Netanyahu had enough seats to set up such a coalition.

Livni seemed uninterested in joining any government that she did not head, and told supporters Thursday that Kadima would probably go into the opposition.

"Today, the foundation was laid for an extreme right-wing government led by Netanyahu," she told party members. "This is not our way, and there is nothing for us in such a government."

Material from The New York Times is included in this report.