Agencies

A UN human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel's seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime against humanity".

Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.

Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel's "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".

Falk, an American expert on international law, said Israel's two-year blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza restricted vital supplies such as food, medicine and fuel to "bare subsistence levels".

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a report this week that Israel was also halting entry to Gaza of building materials and spare parts needed to repair damage from its 22-day invasion late last December.

"Such a pattern of continuing blockade under these conditions amounts to such a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions as to constitute a continuing crime against humanity," Falk said in a statement released in Geneva.

Prior to leaving Cyprus, the ship was inspected by Cypriot authorities in response to Israeli demands to determine whether it carried any weapons, according to the UN investigator.

"None were found and Israeli authorities were so informed." "Nonetheless, the 21 peace activists on the boat were arrested, held in captivity and have been charged with 'illegal entry' to Israel even though they had no intention of going to Israel," Falk added.

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, rejected the remarks by Falk whom he said was "known for his bias against Israel and anti-Israel statements".

Israel is allowing relief aid to reach Gaza in coordination with Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Leshno-Yaar said.

"Clearly the purpose of that ship was to create a buzz and serve as a propaganda vehicle against Israel," he told Reuters.

Activists from the US-based Free Gaza movement said that Irish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney were among those aboard.

Falk, who is Jewish, has had his own difficulties with Israeli authorities in trying to fulfil his independent mandate for the UN Human Rights Council.

Last December, he was detained and turned back from Israel, forcing him to abort a planned mission to Gaza - a deportation denounced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In a report last March, Falk said Israel's year-end military assault on the densely populated coastal strip of 1.5 million appeared to constitute a grave war crime.

Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians.

A UN inquiry into alleged war crimes by both Israel and Hamas in the recent conflict held public hearings in Gaza this week and will also hear testimony in Geneva next week.

It is led by former UN war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist.

Meanwhile, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin called Thursday for the release of two citizens detained when the Israeli navy boarded and seized the ship.

Martin called for the "swift" release of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and Derek Graham as well as the other 19 passengers detained on the ship The Spirit of Humanity.

Martin urged the Jewish state to ensure the supplies reach the Palestinian authorities, branding the blockade "completely unacceptable".

"All border crossings into Gaza should be opened immediately to humanitarian and normal commercial traffic so that the dire humanitarian situation can be adequately addressed and the reconstruction of Gaza begin.

"This is the only effective remedy which we should seek to offer to the long-suffering people of Gaza," Martin added.

Merkel slams settlements

German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Thursday that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank stop, saying it endangered efforts to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

"I think it is now important to get commitments from all sides and that includes the issue of settlement building," Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

"I am convinced that there must be a stop to this. Otherwise we will not come to the two-state solution that is urgently needed." Merkel's remarks are in line with the positions of the European Union and the United States, but were unusually clear-cut for the German leader, who regularly cites her country's special obligation to Israel because of the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said US-backed peace talks with Israel cannot resume until all settlement activity has ceased on occupied land the Palestinians want for a state.

Washington has also called for a total halt to settlement building in the occupied West Bank, a demand that has opened the most serious rift in US-Israeli relations in a decade.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that Israel would consider a limited moratorium on new settlement construction, but said it should be part of a broader deal bringing Arab states into the peace process.

Gaza death

A 17- year-old girl was killed in a blast in central Gaza near the Israeli border Thursday, Hamas security officials said, charging that an Israeli tank shell was to blame.

The Israeli military said soldiers came under fire from Palestinian fighters across the border in central Gaza and returned the fire, but they did not use tank shells.

Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr Moaiya Hassanain said the dead person was a 17-year-old woman, and one of the wounded was a 3-year-old girl. Earlier Hassanain said the little girl was killed.

The Hamas officials spoke under customary condition of anonymity. Other Palestinians raised doubts about the report that an Israel tank shell was responsible for the blast, noting that reporters were uncharacteristically banned from the area and the family refused to talk to them.

There have been sporadic border clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters since Israel ended its devastating three-week offensive in Gaza in January.