A U.N. agency in Gaza will stop distributing aid to more than 750,000 Palestinians because Israel has halted border crossings into the Palestinian territory, the agency's director said Friday, CNN reported.
Palestinians protest Israeli sanctions Thursday evening in Gaza City.
"We have run out of food. Our warehouses are empty," U.N. Relief and Works Agency Director John Ging said.
"These interruptions on the crossing points affect us immediately," Ging said earlier. "So the immediate impact is that on Saturday morning, we won't have any food to distribute."
The Israeli military said it was forced to shut down the border because of rocket attacks on Israel and security threats.
The Israeli government denies that its actions have interfered with UNRWA's ability to provide assistance to some 80 percent of the territory's 1.5 million people.
But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel "to allow urgently, the steady and sufficient supply of fuel and humanitarian assistance," according to a statement from the U.N. chief's spokesman.
"(Ban) also calls on Israel to resume facilitating the activities of (UNRWA) ... and all humanitarian agencies, including through unimpeded access for U.N. officials and humanitarian workers," the spokesman's statement said.
Hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza continued for an 11th day Friday, bringing an effective end to a five-month cease-fire and creating what one U.N. official called a "desperate" humanitarian situation.
The Israeli military carried out airstrikes on a suspected militant rocket-launching site in northern Gaza early Friday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said.