UN leader Ban Ki-moon came under a brief shower of shoes as he entered Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday, hours after a barrage of rockets was fired from the territory into Israel.

As the UN chief entered the Palestinian territory, protesters threw shoes, sand and small stones at his convoy, which was briefly held up before continuing on to Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

A crowd of around 50 demonstrators, most of them relatives of Palestinians in Israeli jails, said they were protesting the fact that Ban was not meeting with them or Palestinian prisoner groups during his brief trip to Gaza.