OMAK - Dr. Bill Dienst will join a delegation of physicians and other health care providers this week on his second trip to the Gaza Strip in Israel.
     The delegation is being organized by Seattle-based Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.
     Besides Dienst, who practices emergency and family medicine, the group includes a neurosurgeon and medical specialists in cardiology, urology and maxillofacial surgery, Dienst said.
     The physicians will join Gaza doctors in similar specialties at the Al Awda Hospital, located in Jabalya Refugee Camp in Northern Gaza.
     The delegation also includes a psychiatrist, registered nurse, attorney and other human rights observers.
     Jabalya is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in the Middle East with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
     Gaza is still recovering from last winter's massive Israeli attack, which killed more than 1,400, wounded more than 5,000, destroyed hospitals and mosques, and rendered more than 50,000 people homeless, according to news reports.
     Gaza's recovery is still being hampered by an ongoing land, sea and aerial siege, which is preventing reconstruction materials such as wood and concrete from entering the walled-off enclave, Dienst said.
     Dienst first entered Gaza via the Free Gaza Movement, bringing medical and other supplies to the 1.5 million Gazans in August.
     He was not allowed to leave Gaza from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7, 2008, when political pressure from the U.S. caused Gazan officials to release him.