JERUSALEM: International food aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip will have to be suspended if an Israeli closure of the coastal territory continues, a UN aid agency spokesman said on Monday.

“We are going to have to suspend operations on Thursday or Friday ... because we are running out of plastic bags we use for food, and we are running out of fuel,” said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which distributes food aid to 860,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Gunness’s warning came amid a flare-up in violence between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers and the stoppage of crucial Israeli fuel supplies to the coastal strip.—AP