Gaza protesters hurl shoes as UN’s Ban begins visit

UN leader Ban Ki-moon came under a brief shower of shoes as he entered Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday, hours after a barrage of rockets was fired from the territory into Israel.
As the UN chief entered the Palestinian territory, protesters threw shoes, sand and small stones at his convoy, which was briefly held up before continuing on to Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. A crowd of around 50 demonstrators, most of them relatives of Palestinians in Israeli jails, said they were protesting the fact that Ban was not meeting with them or Palestinian prisoner groups during his brief trip to Gaza.
The UN chief’s first stop in the territory was at the Amal (Hope) school in Khan Yunis, with a visit to a Japanese-funded housing project also on the agenda.
He is not scheduled to meet with any member of the Hamas-run government.
UN security decided to go ahead with the trip despite a barrage of eight rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza on Wednesday night.
Israel and the militant groups in Gaza maintain an informal truce, but rockets are periodically fired from the territory, usually causing no damage or injuries, prompting retaliatory attacks by Israeli forces. On Wednesday, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ban condemned rocket attacks from Gaza as “unacceptable” and said he had discussed the delicate informal truce. “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 affect Gaza’s entire population, unfairly affecting civilians.