These days it is pretty rare for visiting dignitaries to want to or to be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip from the Israeli border.

A migrant worker from Thailand in Israel died on Thursday after being wounded by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip.[Xinhua]

Either Israel makes the area off limits, or visitors choose to boycott Gaza because it is run by the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement, which many in the West deem to be a terror organization.

Things change. Within a couple of weeks, Israel is giving access to the area to both European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Ashton entered Gaza on Thursday, and Ban is slated to be in the region soon.

The arrival of the VIPs in the Palestinian coastal enclave comes as UN High Commissioner for Refugees Navi Pillay said on Wednesday that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are taking seriously international demands that they properly investigate allegations of war crimes carried out during last year's fighting in and around Gaza.

However, despite the UN accusation and urge, neither Palestinian nor Israeli human rights organizations are optimistic about the prospect of a valid probe into the war in the future.