A donkey cart loaded with food aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency at Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 24 Apr 2008

The United Nations has stopped distributing food to Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, citing a lack of fuel for its delivery trucks.

A spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, Adnan Abu Hasna, says some 700,000 refugees who depend on the U.N. for basic food packets will not be getting them.

He says the agency used the last of its fuel on Thursday. Hospitals and clinics are also said to be running low on fuel.

Complicating matters, news reports say some Gaza residents are protesting the fuel stoppages by blocking the distribution of available fuel. Reports say local farmers blocked a tanker bringing an emergency fuel shipment to the U.N. agency on Wednesday. Gaza's gasoline distributors are also reportedly preventing distribution of a million liters of fuel delivered last week.

Israel shipped fuel to Gaza Wednesday to keep its sole power plant running. But it maintains a ban on gasoline and diesel fuel, in a bid to halt near daily militant Palestinian rocket attacks on Israelis.

A Hamas official says that following Muslim prayers Friday, Palestinians will march on Gaza border crossings to protest the Israeli blockade.

Earlier Thursday, Palestinian officials said one person was killed and at least three others wounded in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.