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The Israelis have temporarily opened the Karem Abu Salem border crossing with Gaza to allow a limited supply of humanitarian aid to reach the territory.
Thirty trucks, 11 of which are carrying United Nations (UN) supplies, were allowed to travel into the Strip on Monday.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said: "One UN official told me ... there will be enough to last a week, but in a week's time, if Gaza doesn't get more supplies, the UN will be in the same position."
Mohyeldin reported that UN officials had likened allowing limited supplies through to "a sort of drip-feeding" of the territory.
Israel stepped up its blockade of Gaza - keeping crossings closed and so preventing the delivery of fuel and essential humanitarian supplies - in response to Palestinian fighters launching rockets into southern Israel.
Power plant closed
The Israelis have almost continuously enforced the blockade since November 5, halting the supply of United Nations food and medical aid to 750,000 Palestinians and forcing the territory's sole power plant to shut down.
Our correspondent said the Israeli government had been clear that border crossings would remain closed while rockets attacks continued.
However, Palestinians say the policy is one of collective punishment and ignores Israel's humanitarian responsibilities in ensuring civilians receive adequate food and medical supplies.
Mohyeldin said there had been rumors that Israel was seeking to transfer those responsibilities to another border country - possibly Egypt.
As relations between Israel and Gaza sink even lower, Ehud Olmert, Israel's outgoing prime minister, has declared the five-month truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip "shattered" following 13 days of tit-for-tat attacks.
Olmert told an Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday that he had ordered security chiefs to draw up plans to end rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, news agency AFP reported.
Olmert made the remarks shortly after four Palestinian fighters from the Popular Resistance Committees were killed in an Israeli air attack in northern Gaza.
PHOTO CAPTION
A truck driver secures a load of humanitarian supplies bound for Gaza outside the Kerem Shalom border crossing November 13, 2008.
Al-Jazeera
