Israel heaps more misery on Gazans

Gaza City: Israel kept up its strikes against Gaza fighters on Saturday, killing at least two in a new raid, as its lockdown of the impoverished Palestinian territory started to take its toll on residents.

A pre-dawn air strike north of Gaza City killed two fighters of the Ezz Al Deen Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, medics said.

A second strike there left no casualties.

A senior official from the UN agency for refugees warned about the impact of the closures on the deepening poverty in the coastal strip. "At the UN we only provide 61 per cent of the daily calories for the people that are relying on us," John Ging, the UNRWA's Gaza director, said.

'Stop the massacre'

The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference yesterday condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, urging the United Nations to intervene to stop the bloodshed in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

Ekmel Al Deen Ehsanogulu, secretary-general of the conference, accused the Israeli military of "committing successive massacres in the Gaza Strip, in which civilians were killed."