Arab League Chief Makes First Visit to Gaza

The Arab world's most senior diplomat has arrived in the Gaza Strip.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa was greeted at the Egyptian border town of Rafah Sunday by officials from Hamas and various Palestinian factions.

The chief of the 22-member Arab League said Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip "must be broken."

Moussa is expected to hold talks with top Hamas leader Ismail Haniya at his home during the one-day visit.  He is also scheduled to meet with Palestinian families who lost relatives during the Israel-Gaza war.

Some 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during the 3-week war, which began in December 2008. 

Moussa is the highest-ranking Arab official to visit Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in 2007.

Moussa's visit comes two weeks after Israel's soldiers killed nine pro-Palestinian activists who were part of a humanitarian flotilla that was trying to break Israel's three-year-old blockade and deliver aid directly to Gaza.