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Hamas police seized thousands of blankets and food packages meant for the needy in Gaza, the U.N. said Wednesday, a move that could threaten the provision of aid essential for a majority of Gaza's impoverished residents.

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said Hamas policemen broke into an aid warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday evening and confiscated 3,500 blankets and more than 400 packages of food.

"They were armed, they seized this, they took it by force," Gunness said, terming the seizure "absolutely unacceptable."

He said police confiscated aid meant for 500 families after U.N. officials refused to voluntarily hand it over to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. Similar U.N. aid packages had already been distributed to 70,000 residents over the past two weeks.

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