GAZA, July 28: Gunmen and activists from a besieged Gaza border town blocked off the main road leading to Israel on Wednesday, shooting in the air to stop vehicles and vowing not to let any Palestinian Authority officials through.

Accusing the Palestinian Authority of ignoring humanitarian needs in the sealed off town of Beit Hanoun, the gunmen blocked roads with mounds of earth and erected a white protest tent.

It was the latest show of power by gunmen in the Gaza Strip, which has seen a surge in Palestinian unrest. Last week gunmen kidnapped local officials and foreigners and burned down police stations in protest at corruption in the Palestinian Authority.

This time, the gunmen were protesting at what they saw as the Palestinian Authority's failure to get Israel to lift a siege of Beit Hanoun, imposed after militant's rocket fire killed two Israelis.

"No official can go to Israel or go from Israel to Gaza," said Muhanna Shabat, a protest organizer. "Only humanitarian cases can pass." As he spoke, gunmen shot in the air over a bulldozer approaching the roadblock as the Palestinian driver's small son looked on in horror.

They later tried to drag the driver off the bulldozer, and beat on a nearby car with clubs. Meanwhile, the Israeli army said soldiers killed a Palestinian militant who pulled a pistol on them at a roadblock near Beit Hanoun. Around 17 Palestinians, at least eight of them militants, have been killed since the siege began. -Reuters