UN agency suspends aid to Gaza

Gaza Strip: A major United Nations aid agency said it suspended importing goods into the Gaza Strip yesterday because the Islamist group Hamas had seized supplies for the second time in the week.

Hamas denied it confiscated any supplies, saying it was a misunderstanding between drivers due to a lack of coordination. Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which supports much of Gaza's 1.5 million population, said Hamas forces had seized 10 trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies yesterday. Two days earlier, Hamas men took blankets and food from an UNRWA store in Gaza.

"The Hamas government must return all of the aid that's been confiscated ... and we have to be given by the Hamas government credible assurances that this will not happen again," Gunness said. "If it doesn't happen, then we will continue with the suspension of our imports."

Ahmad Al Kurd, welfare minister in Gaza's Hamas government, said the supplies were taken by mistake. "It was a misunderstanding between drivers," Al Kurd said. "We have told UNRWA they can come ... and take the goods."

The flap came as Israel deported most of the 18 passengers on board a Lebanese aid ship which was intercepted off the coast of the Gaza Strip, and said it plans to put the remaining three on a plane to Britain and India in the coming days.