Aid agencies condemn Israel's siege of Gaza

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Play VideoIsrael removes checkpoint in West Bank

The United Nations and the world's humanitarian bodies have expressed deep concern over Israel's continued blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Those sanctions, they say, are further impoverishing the 1.5 million people living there.

Israel has maintained an almost total blockade of Gaza since Hamas took full control of the territory in June 2007.

In the past two years, the blockade stops materials like these from going into and out of the Gaza Strip. Some of the materials are essential for reconstruction in the Palestinian territory and the subsistence of its people.

Mike Bailey, Spokesman, Oxfam International, said, "This is collected punishment in a tin. The factory that made this closed down 18 months ago when they ran out of the cans that they have in Gaza, that they had in store. They have two million shekels worth of cans in Israel but they are not allowed to import them."

An Israeli soldier walks past the controversial separation barrier near a checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on January 23.(AFP/File/Abbas Momani)