Jerusalem - United Nations aid agencies asked international donors Wednesday for 462 million dollars to help fund their activities in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 2009, saying most of the money was needed for emergency food and cash assistance to Palestinians.

Around 274 million dollars is meant for UNWRA, the UN agency which assists Palestinians living in the refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

"We would prefer doing development work, but there is a humanitarian imperative. We have to focus our work on the delivery of food and cash assistance," UN Humanitarian Coordinator Maxwell Gaylard told a news conference in Jerusalem at which the appeal was launched.

"There is a massive assault on the human rights of the people living in Gaza," he said. A small selection of food products was available in the Gaza Strip and the basic food products were available were of a lower quality as a result of Israel's stringent economic blockade, Gaylard added.

Gaza's population of nearly 1.5 million had reduced access to drinking water and electricity, he said.

UNWRA's deputy commissioner general, Filippo Grandi, said that since Israel re-tightened its closure of the Gaza three weeks ago following a new surge in violence, his organization was able to transport only 16 trucks with humanitarian aid into the Strip. The minimum to cover humanitarian needs was 15 trucks a day, he said.

"We hope the period of closure won't be very long, as we heard from some Israeli officials. We respect Israeli security concerns and condemn rocket attacks, but the unpredictability of the Israeli blockade is having very negative consequences on our operability," he said. (dpa)