UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at a news conference in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012. — Photo by AP

GAZA CITY: Angry protesters showered UN chief Ban Ki-moon with shoes as he visited the Gaza Strip on Thursday, condemning him for failing to meet the families of Palestinian prisoners.

Mr Ban was pelted as he crossed into the Palestinian territory, where a crowd of around 50 demonstrators tried to block his convoy as it entered Gaza.

As some threw sand and stones in addition to footwear, others waved pictures of imprisoned Palestinians and signs in English reading “Ban Ki-moon, enough bias for Israel.”

Mr Ban’s convoy was able to proceed to Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, but further demonstrations met him there at stops at a school and a Japanese-funding housing project, with protesters holding banners saying “We demand a trial for Israel’s leaders.”

And a group of local NGOs and businessmen announced they were boycotting a planned lunch with the UN leader after his staff refused to allow them to bring some relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to the meeting.

A statement signed by some of Gaza’s most prominent rights activists and businessmen said they had made “intensive efforts” to ensure relatives of Palestinian prisoners could meet Mr Ban.

“We received an unjustified negative response indicating that the secretary-general refused to meet with representatives of families of prisoners,” the statement said.

The group expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with Mr Ban’s decision, noting that he had met on multiple occasions the family of an Israeli soldier who was captured by Gaza militants in 2006 and held incommunicado for five years.

Mr Ban released a statement on the demonstrations after he crossed back into Israel saying he was “concerned about the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails”.

“The United Nations continues to call on Israel to abide by its obligations under international law,” he added.

There are more than 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Gaza have raised concerns about their conditions.

Mr Ban’s visit to Gaza, part of a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, came hours after a barrage of eight rockets was fired from the territory into southern Israel.UN security decided to go ahead with the trip, but Mr Ban strongly condemned the rocket fire, calling it “unacceptable”.

“People from Gaza must stop firing rockets onto the Israeli side,” he said at a press conference in Khan Yunis.

The UN chief also called on Israel to ease its restrictions on Gaza.

Israel limits imports and exports from the territory, citing security concerns and the need to deny access to weapons and money to the ruling Hamas.

But much of the international community, including the United Nations, believes that the restrictions unfairly affect Gaza’s entire population.

“Israel has taken some measures to ease the closure. More must be done,” Mr Ban said.

“I am pressing hard for policy changes so that the United Nations can do its essential work,” he said, calling for Gaza to be able to trade “without restrictions.”

Israel and the militant groups in Gaza maintain an informal truce, but rockets are periodically fired from the territory, usually causing no damage or casualties but prompting retaliatory attacks by Israeli forces.—AFP