Tel Aviv  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Tuesday condemned as "unacceptable" rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip after a visit to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, a frequent target of those rockets.

According to the Israeli media, Ban expressed understanding for the needs of Sderot's inhabitants, who he said had to live in fear.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier had entered the Gaza Strip via the Erez border and repeated his condemnation of "the excessive use of force by Israeli forces in Gaza."

He described the destruction of Gaza City's UN headquarters in Gaza in the conflict as "heartbreaking," and said he planned to dispatch a humanitarian assessment team to Gaza on Thursday. (dpa)