U.N.'s Ban urges Israel to end Gaza blockade

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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/2/worldupdates/2010-06-01T225258Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-489681-2&sec=Worldupdates

"U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel on Tuesday to lift its Gaza blockade, saying that if Israel had heeded international calls to do so the raid on a Gaza aid ship flotilla would not have happened.

"Had the Israeli government heeded international calls and my own strong and urgent and persistent call to lift the blockade of Gaza, this would not have happened," Ban told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in Kampala.

Israel detained or deported on Tuesday hundreds of activists who were on the Turkish-backed aid ships it seized on Monday, while the U.N. Security Council called for a prompt and credible investigation into the raid, which led at least nine deaths.

Ban said another, "most depressing" issue was the need for the release by Israel of the detainees and the delivery of the humanitarian aid to Gaza, stressing he was in talks about the issue with the Jewish state and U.N. staff on the ground..."


Published on Sunday, March 21, 2010 by Agence France-Presse

UN Chief Slams Israeli Blockade of the Gaza Strip
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/21-1

"KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip - UN chief Ban Ki-moon slammed Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip saying it caused "unacceptable sufferings," during a visit Sunday to the Hamas-run coastal enclave.

"I have repeatedly made it quite clear to Israel's leaders that the Israeli policy of closure is not sustainable and that it's wrong," Ban told reporters in the southern Gaza Strip town Khan Yunis..."