Israel refuses to ease Gaza sanctions

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has grown worse since a 5-month truce began coming apart two weeks ago. Responding to near-daily rocket attacks, Israel shut its cargo crossings with the territory. Ban - who called Prime Minister Ehud Olmert earlier this week to lobby for more aid shipments - turned up the heat on Thursday with a similar call to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

In a tense conversation with Ban, Livni declared that the blockade would not end until Palestinian militants stop firing rockets at Israel, an aide to Livni reported.

"There is no way that Palestinian terrorists will shoot at us and we will not respond," Livni told Ban, the aide said. "The international community must speak up and use its influence against the Palestinian rocket attacks."

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the telephone call was private. There was no immediate word from the U.N. on Ban's appeal.

After a rocket was fired from Gaza, Israel's Defense Ministry said the crossings would remain closed on Friday.

Israel hopes by closing cargo crossings it can force Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers to halt militant rocket and mortar fire at Israeli border towns. But the closures have drastically reduced the flow of goods into Gaza, home to 1.4 million people.

Although some food is smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt, many basic goods are in short supply.

The top U.N. aid official in Gaza told The Associated Press on Thursday that Israel had reversed a decision to let in 70 trucks of humanitarian aid, bringing U.N. aid stocks perilously close to depletion.

Israel denied it had agreed to let the aid through.

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