"The Israeli decision is a reminder of the imperative of supporting the Palestinian efforts to secure UN and international recognition of the Palestinian state," Adams said.
"That campaign has seen some success in recent months and next month it will be debated in the European Parliament. It is also in a small way a reminder of the apartheid system that now applies," he added.
Speaking from Jerusalem Adams told Sputnik, "I came here to talk, to listen and to find out what is going on. It would be one thing if the people of Gaza had not wanted to let me in, but the fact that it is the Israeli's who have blocked it says a lot."
Adams, whose party Sinn Fein, is most closely associated with the now disbanded Irish Republican Army (IRA), held talks Thursday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and later Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian National Initiative. The Sinn Fein President also held meetings with Israeli Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog.
Adams noted the devastation he had witnessed was much worse since his last visit to the region in 2009.
"Well things here are much worse than during my last visit and I think it remains incumbent on the international community to ensure international law is upheld," Adams said. "The people of Gaza have survived three Israeli assaults in the last decade, and they are besieged and in need of massive aid to rebuild their shattered economy and society."
"The decision not to allow me into Gaza is an inconvenience but it is nothing to the suffering the people there have had to endure," Adams told Sputnik.
Adams dismissed comparisons between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Anglo-Irish conflict known as The Troubles which claimed over 3,500 lives and told Sputnik the destruction he had seen in Palestine was on a far greater scale.
"I don't think there are any comparisons in terms of the scale of the violence that has taken place here and what took place in Ireland," Adams said.
"Of course we had individual atrocities that left scars on me and on many other people, but it hasn't been on the scale that has been experienced here. The West Bank and Gaza have been left pockmarked by the destruction and conflict and it has had a horrific impact on children, on families and on communities," he concluded.
The latest wave of violence erupted in Gaza and the West Bank on July 8, with heavy Israeli bombardment that resulted in 2,100 deaths. The United Nations estimated there were 1,500 civilian casualties, most of them occurring in Gaza. The Israeli Defense Force later confirmed it had dropped 20,000 tons of explosives during the offensive.
Speaking in Belfast, Clive McFarland, a spokesman for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Fein's principal political opposition, told Sputnik Adams should be concentrating on issues closer to home.
"I think there are plenty of issues Gerry Adams and his party should be focused on here at home. We are in the middle of a very important talks process and his role in that has not been entirely helpful in recent weeks, so I suspect he may not have very much to offer and other countries, despite what he thinks he has to offer," McFarland said.
McFarland added it had been some years since the DUP had sent an official delegation to Israel, but told Sputnik DUP members had gone to the region in an unofficial capacity.
