Gaza protesters throw shoes at UN chief

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon arrived in Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, through the Beit Hanoun Erez crossing, north of the Strip, amid angry protests by the residents. A source at the border crossing stated that the families of the Palestinian prisoners and angry citizens received Ban Ki-Moon by throwing shoes at him and repeating “unwelcoming” phrases, denouncing his bias to Israel and his negligence towards the Palestinian prisoners’ issue and the Gaza siege. Citizens raised banners reading “Ban Ki-moon, enough bias to Israel” and called on the UN to pay attention to the suffering of Palestinians in the Strip. Ban had stated on Wednesday that he will work on alleviating the suffering lived by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and lifting the sanctions imposed on the Strip. The UN chief started visited Amman on Tuesday, as a prelude to visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories, where he called on Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations in order to achieve peace and a two state solution. Organisations and iconic figures in Gaza had called for boycotting the meeting with Ban Ki-Moon. The visit comes a day after the UN chief urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease his country's restrictions on the coastal territory. UN security decided to go ahead with the trip despite the rocket attacks, which often prompt Israel to respond to with air strikes on suspected militant strongholds in Gaza. Ban's schedule is expected to include stops at a school and a Japanese-funded housing project, both in Khan Yunis in the centre of the Gaza Strip. He is not scheduled to meet with any member of the Hamas-run government. Ban's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories comes as he tries to kickstart preliminary talks sponsored by the peacemaking Quartet in a bid to get the parties back to direct negotiations. On Wednesday, he met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and urged Israel to offer "goodwill gestures" to the Palestinians. He also condemned rocket attacks from Gaza as "unacceptable" and said he had discussed the delicate informal truce between Israel and militants in the territory. "I shared with him my concerns about the fragility of the calm and stressed that continued rocket attacks out of Gaza must stop," Ban said, adding that he remained concerned about Israel's restrictions on the territory. Israel closely limits imports and exports from Gaza, citing security concerns and the need to deny Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organisation, access to weapons and money. But much of the international community has said the restrictions negatively affects Gaza's entire population, unfairly affecting civilians. "Gaza remains a priority for me and the United Nations family," Ban said on Wednesday. "I thus urged the prime minister to take further steps to facilitate the delivery of the United Nations' important humanitarian and development assistance in the service of the Gazan people." Netanyahu did not directly mention Gaza at the press conference but stressed that Israelis must be protected from "terror". Ban heads back to New York on Thursday night at the end of a three-day mission to prod Israelis and Palestinians back into direct negotiations on hold since September 2010.