UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council should visit Gaza as well as other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory to see the suffering of people there, said Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, on Wednesday.

"I believe the Security Council should visit as soon as possible the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, including East Jerusalem, including the West Bank," Mansour told reporters. "It will be very very useful."

Reading reports and listening to presentations is something; seeing with your own eyes and feeling "the oppression of our people" is something else, he said.

Mansour said the Palestinian side has been requesting such a visit by the Security Council for years.

He was attending informal consultations over the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a result of a 10-year-old blockade. He asked the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and to lift this blockade.