Israel blocks Gaza aid supplies

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel tightened its closure of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday in response to cross-border rocket fire by Palestinian fighters, preventing even UN aid supplies from getting in, officials said.

Israel's stepped up campaign in the coastal territory has prompted the Palestinians to warn that peace talks between President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, spurred by a visit by US President George W. Bush, were in jeopardy.

Israel has killed more than 30 Palestinians in Gaza since Monday, including one militant and a civilian in a missile strike on Friday morning.

The Israeli army says it is targeting Gaza fighters who have fired more than 110 rockets into the Jewish territory in the last three days alone. In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli troops killed a fighter linked to Abbas's Fatah movement.

The Israeli Defence Ministry ordered all of the border crossings with Gaza closed and said only "humanitarian cases" which receive Defence Minister Ehud Barak's personal approval will be allowed through. "If milk is low in Gaza, the minister will be asked to approve a milk shipment, and it will enter," a ministry spokesman said.

Gaza is home to 1.5 million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides food to refugees, said it was not allowed to deliver truckloads of supplies on Friday morning as it usually does, and warned of a deteriorating situation.