GAZA, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A second theft of supplies linked to Hamas forced the United Nations to suspend its aid operation in Gaza, a U.N. relief agency for the strip said Friday.

"(The) suspension ... will remain in effect until the aid is returned and the agency is given credible assurances from the Hamas government in Gaza that there will be no repeat of these thefts," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said in a news release.


The food seizure followed the agency's repeated warnings that not nearly enough food and other supplies was getting through because of closed border crossings.

Gohn Ging, the agency's director of operations in Gaza, said the seizure of tons of food meant for Gazans was the second such seizure in three days.

On Thursday, 10 trucks of flour and rice were taken from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Gaza, the agency said in a statement.

"They had been imported from Egypt for collection by (the agency)," the statement said added. "The food was taken away by trucks contracted by the Ministry of Social Affairs."

On Tuesday, 3,500 blankets and over 400 food parcels were taken at gunpoint from a distribution store in Beach Camp in Gaza, the relief agency said. Hamas said it would distribute the aid itself.

Ging said he told Hamas to "stop the nonsense that they've been coming out with trying to justify what they did and accept that it was an egregious error."