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PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL/GAZA

NOVEMBER 24 2008 12:24h

VIDEO: Israel Lets Limited Aid Into Gaza Strip

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Video

Both Israel and Hamas have said they want to restore the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Israel opened border crossings with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday, allowing in limited amounts of food and fuel for the second time in three weeks.

Aid groups said the one-day shipment would have minimal impact because border crossings have been closed for so long, depleting reserves of everything from flour to animal feed.

"It is just not enough," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Israel agreed to allow in more than 40 truckloads of goods, including 10 for UNRWA, officials said. Gunness said his agency needed about 15 trucks a day.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossings to open after a drop in the number of cross-border rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip.

Israel clamped down on humanitarian imports to the Gaza Strip starting Nov. 4, when a deadly army raid into the coastal territory triggered a surge in rocket attacks.

The Kerem Shalom goods crossing was last opened on Nov. 17 to let in about 30 truckloads of goods.

For the first time since Nov. 12, Israel also allowed in European Union-funded fuel to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant, a move that could temporarily alleviate chronic blackouts.

Hamas Health Minister Basim Naeem said Gaza faced a "real crisis that cannot be alleviated by these Zionist tricks", referring to the limited number of trucks allowed in.

Gunness said UNRWA cannot function normally without a steady stream of supplies, not only food but books for schoolchildren, also blocked by Israel for weeks.

Israeli officials said future aid shipments hinged on keeping a lid on border violence which has disrupted a 5-month-old truce, due to expire in December, along the Israel-Gaza frontier.

Both Israel and Hamas have said they want to restore the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

It calls on Hamas to halt rocket fire and other attacks against the Jewish state.

The ceasefire also demands Israel gradually ease the blockade it tightened on the Gaza Strip more than a year ago after Hamas Islamists routed President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah forces.

LOOK AT THE VIDEO: http://www.javno.tv/en/index.php?id=11940p78664