Washington said on Monday that it was deeply concerned that thousands of Palestinians are stranded because Israel has closed a border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, in an apparent and rare rebuke of the Jewish state.
Washington avoided blaming any side and urged Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel to find a way to allow Gazans to return home.
But it also emphasized the Palestinians' suffering and worried that the closure could hurt peacemaking.
Israel closed the Rafah border crossing, which it controls, on July 18, citing security reasons and saying it had information about a possible attack on or near the crossing.
The unusually long closure has drawn anger from Palestinians and criticism from rights groups, which say standards of hygiene are poor at the crowded crossing.
One woman gave birth to a baby girl while waiting.
"We are deeply concerned about it. It is a humanitarian problem that disturbs us," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"The burden and hardship being imposed upon Palestinians is problematic," he said.
"We are reiterating our call on all the parties to avoid taking steps or actions that undermine trust and create new obstacles to implementing the [peace] roadmap," he added.
Many Arabs accuse the US of favoring the Jewish state in brokering peace.
But the Bush administration, which rarely criticizes Israel, has sought to blunt such accusations by providing humanitarian aid for occupied areas and expressing its sensitivity to Palestinians' suffering.
Gaza's air and sea routes have been cut during a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.
The crossing with Egypt is the only entrance and exit point for most Gazans into the sliver of land on the Mediterranean coast.
Israel regularly closes Rafah because of security alerts or army operations in the area, a stronghold of Islamic militants. But such closures rarely last more than a few days.
Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of worsening the problem by rejecting an offer to let travelers use a crossing into Israel and then be brought home to Gaza.
Palestinians said they could not accept the Israeli proposal because it would let only 200 people a day reach Gaza.
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