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UN chief Ban Ki-moon crossed into the Gaza Strip on Sunday, expressing solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians and urging an end to an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-run territory.

Ban was making his second visit to the Gaza Strip since the 22-day Gaza War ended in January 2009 as part of a regional tour aimed at reviving the peace process, which ground to a halt when the fighting broke out.

He entered the war-battered Palestinian enclave from Israel through the Erez Crossing, where he was met by a small group of people waving Palestinian flags.

Ban then began touring some of the hardest-hit areas of Gaza. He was due later to inaugurate projects to build 150 homes, a flour mill and a sewage treatment plant, all of which he said were approved by Israel in recent days.

In the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the UN Secretary General had said his visit to Gaza was to show his support for Palestinians.

"I'll go to Gaza... to express my solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian people there and to underscore the need to end the blockade," Ban told reporters.

Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after the Islamist Hamas movement violently seized power there in June 2007, and has said the border closures are necessary to contain the group, which is pledged to its destruction.

But Ban insisted ahead of a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday that the closures imposed "unacceptable hardships" on civilians.

"I understand and share Israel's concerns about the challenges posed by Hamas, but Israel's blockade continues to impose unacceptable hardships while empowering extremists," he said.

"I am confident the blockade can be lifted while addressing Israel's legitimate security concerns."

Gaza's borders have been mostly quiet since the end of the war, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, but the closures have prevented the rebuilding of thousands of homes that were damaged or destroyed.

The military offensive in December 2008 and January 2009 largely succeeded in halting near-daily rocket attacks that were rarely lethal but left Israelis living near Gaza's borders in a constant state of fear.

However, in the past three days several rockets have slammed into Israel, with one killing a Thai labourer -- the first casualty of the rocket attacks since the fighting was ended by unilateral ceasefires.

Hamas has taken steps to rein in the rocket fire since the war, and the deadly attack was claimed by a radical Al-Qaeda-inspired group which has clashed with Hamas in the past.

Ban's visit comes as part of a two-day regional tour in which he encouraged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to revive the peace process.

Earlier this month the Palestinians grudgingly agreed to indirect talks with Israel after months of US shuttle diplomacy, but progress stalled two days later when Israel announced plans for 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians have refused to hold direct negotiations unless Israel halts settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which they view as the capital of their future state.

Israel, which seized east Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day war and annexed it in a move not recognised by any other government, has blamed the Palestinians for not returning to the negotiating table.

Ban's visit came on the heels of a statement by the Middle East diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- calling for a return to talks and a final peace deal within two years.

The Quartet also ordered Israel to halt all settlement activity.

AFP