UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived on Sunday in the Gaza Strip as part of a Middle East tour aimed at reviving the peace process.
Ban is making his second visit to the Palestinian enclave of 1.5 million, which has been the subject of an almost continuous Israeli blockade since radical Islamic group Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007.
During his Saturday's visit to the occupied West Bank, Ban said he would visit Gaza to show his support for Palestinians.
The UN chief's regional tour follows the Moscow meeting of the Middle East quartet of international mediators comprising the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, which called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity and pledged to use all powers to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
During his Saturday's visit to the West Bank, the UN chief said the Mideast quartet supported Palestinian efforts to establish an independent and viable state.
"We are strongly supporting your efforts to establish an independent and viable Palestinian state," Ban said after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Ban reiterated the quartet's position at a news conference in Ramallah.
"The world has condemned Israel's settlement plans in east Jerusalem," he said. "Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped."
Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving peace talks.
Under the internationally agreed roadmap for Middle East peace, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement construction activity and remove unauthorized outposts built since 2001 from Palestinian territories.
GAZA, March 21 (RIA Novosti)
