UN agency runs out of Gaza food supplies

A United Nations aid agency said on Thursday it had run out of food supplies for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after Israel blocked deliveries by the world body. Israel says they are keeping commercial border crossings with the coastal territory closed in retaliation for recent rocket attacks by Gaza militants. Israel has not allowed the U.N. and other agencies to bring supplies into the Gaza Strip since Nov. 4. John Ging, a top official with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) called the economic situation in Gaza "a disaster." Israel also held up deliveries of European Union-funded fuel to the territory's sole power plant, causing it to be shut down, plunging much of the region into darkness. Half of the 1.5 million people living in the Gaza Strip depend on UNRWA food supplies. UNRWA head Karen AbuZayd told Reuters in an interview in Brussels she was worried Israel was narrowing the criteria for humanitarian aid and that certain items, including some school supplies, would be excluded from future shipments. Israel says it remains committed to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, which went into effect on June 19. The ceasefire calls on Hamas to halt rocket fire and other attacks against the Jewish state. It also demands that Israel gradually lifts a its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel tightened the blockade of Gaza a year ago after the elected Hamas government wrestled control of the territory from rival Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.