Israel not doing enough to ease Gaza conditions-UN

JERUSALEM, July 11 (Reuters) UN aid agencies told Israel today it was not doing enough to ease a threatened humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Western diplomats said.

UN agency heads and donors held their first meeting with Israel's foreign minister since the start of a major Gaza offensive two weeks ago to free an abducted soldier.

In the closed-door meeting, the UN agencies and donors asked Israel to ease restrictions on bringing in supplies saying that fuel and flour were running out despite Israeli efforts to ease bottlenecks, the diplomats said.

Israel bombed Gaza's main power plant. Generators that power water wells and sewage pumping plants are running low on fuel.

The World Health Organisation warned over the weekend that the health system was also facing an unprecedented crisis.

The agency representatives told Israeli officials that restrictions on fishing have made it more difficult for Gazans to feed their families.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was distributing beans and milk powder as a protein substitute, but supplies in Gaza have run out, the aid groups said.

A UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said UNRWA, the agency that administers Palestinian refugees, has stockpiles of food and other humanitarian supplies but cannot access them while the Karni commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza is closed.

''They (the Israelis) tried to assure us they were doing enough but as far as we're concerned a lot more needs to be done,'' said a diplomatic source who attended the briefing.

More than 50 Palestinians have been killed since Israel sent its forces into the Gaza Strip on June 28.

''Civilians are disproportionately paying the price of this conflict,'' UN agencies said in a joint statement issued over the weekend.

REUTERS SRS RAI0147