Israel Allows Food Shipments For Palestinians

GAZA CITY — Israel eased its blockade of Gaza City for at least a day yesterday, allowing the European Union and United Nations to truck in the first food shipments to Gaza in five days, along with fuel to restart the Palestinian territory's idled power plant.

Gaza Strip, with 1.5 million people, had been cut off since Friday, when Israel closed entry points in response to increased rocket barrages last week from Gaza toward southern Israel. About a half-million Gaza residents had been without power for most of Sunday and Monday, after the territory's power plant exhausted its reserves.

Some water plants also exhausted fuel supplies, leaving 40% of Gaza's people without running water, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said yesterday. Equipment failures during the blockade forced Gaza sewage plants to pump 30 million liters of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean, the U.N.organization said. Secretary of State Rice said yesterday she had expressed concern to Israel.

"Nobody wants innocent Gazans to suffer, and so we have spoken to the Israelis about the importance of not allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold there," Ms. Rice told reporters.