TEL AVIV, February 9 (RIA Novosti) - The UN humanitarian aid confiscated by the Palestinian movement Hamas has been returned, a UN relief spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) stopped humanitarian aid after it said 10 truckloads containing 200 tons of rice and 100 tons of flour imported from Egypt were seized last Thursday on the Palestinian side of the Kerem-Shalom crossing into Gaza. The supplies were taken by trucks contracted by Hamas' social affairs ministry.

In another incident, 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels were taken at gunpoint from a warehouse in Gaza last Tuesday.

"Everything that was taken, Hamas has returned," Chris Guinness, the UNRWA spokesman said. "Now we may renew humanitarian aid imports into the Gaza Strip."

Shipments will reach the enclave of 1.5 million no sooner than Wednesday as Israel has closed the border crossings into Gaza until after Tuesday's parliamentary polls.

Gaza was devastated by a recent three-week long assault by Israel on the enclave. The attack, which began in late December, left over 1,300 Palestinians dead and some 50,000 people homeless.