Collective punishment for Gaza is wrong: U.N.

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israel has a right to respond to security threats but should not collectively punish the Gaza population for rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory, the U.N. humanitarian affairs chief said on Friday.

The United Nations also criticized Israel's decision to close all border crossings with Gaza, preventing delivery of a U.N. aid shipment to the territory's 1.5 million people, most of whom depend on foreign aid.

"We all understand the security problems and the need to respond to that but collective punishment of the people of Gaza is not, we believe, the appropriate way to do that," said John Holmes, undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs.

The deputy head of Israel's mission to the United Nations, Daniel Carmon, told Reuters Israel's actions were "what any responsible government would do when it is confronted as we are with this surge of violence and terrorism."

He gave no indication of when the closure would end.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called "for an immediate cessation of Palestinian sniper and rocket attacks into Israel, and for maximum restraint on the part of the Israel Defence Forces," spokeswoman Michel Montas said in a statement.

Israel has killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza this week as part of what it describes as a stepped-up campaign to force Hamas to rein in militants who have fired more than 110 rockets into the Jewish state in the last three days alone.

It bombed the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza on Friday, killing one woman and injuring at least 30 others who were nearby, medical officials said.