Hamas urges UN food agency to resume work in Gaza The Islamist group Hamas has urged the United Nations relief and food agency to resume its operations in the Gaza Strip despite a violent protest. All the UN agency's offices have been closed after demonstrators called for a reversal of a decision to cut an annual 35 euro handout to the poorest Gazans. The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, called for urgent talks with UN food agency directors and promised that their "staff and facilites would be safe." The dispute comes against a broader backdrop of growing Palestinian unrest in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to return to Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy on Sunday with meetings in both Ramallah and Jerusalem, but he's not expected to bring any new initiative to revive peace talks More about: Hamas, Humanitarian aid, The Gaza Strip, United Nations