By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, June 17 (Reuters) - A senior United Nations official in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday that difficult living conditions there may worsen and could lead to more violence.

"I think the situation is very grave," said John Ging, head of operations in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which provides humanitarian services to most of the strip's 1.5 million Palestinians.

"In misery and poverty you find the seeds of violence," Ging told Reuters in an interview.

The Islamist Hamas faction seized control of Gaza after fierce fighting last week with the rival Fatah group of President Mahmoud Abbas.

The United States, Israel and some European states plan to quickly lift a ban on direct aid to a new Palestinian government sworn in by Abbas on Sunday in place of a Hamas-led unity government, but it is unclear how much money may flow to Gaza.

Israel, which controls Gaza's borders, hopes to isolate the territory after the Hamas takeover. It stopped most fuel supplies on Sunday, putting hospitals and business on hold.

"What I am hoping now is that everybody who is making decisions would focus on the living conditions of people in Gaza ... because really they have suffered enough," Ging said.

"Our message is very simple. We cannot punish the population of the Gaza Strip, so what we need to do is take care that what is happening is not making the living conditions more miserable than they already had been," he added.

GROWING NEED

Ging said his relief organisation was providing food and other humanitarian services for over one million people in Gaza Strip including 860,000 refugees.

"We have to try to respond to the growing need and this will depend on the generosity of the donors," he said.

Ging said the escape of hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank and Israel was a sign of despair. Most of those who fled had special permits to leave, but Ging said ordinary Gazans were "trapped".

"I am very concerned that people are losing hope and looking at a future for themselves and their families outside the Gaza Strip, but of course they won't be able to do that because the borders are closed," Ging said.

The recent violence and the split authority in Gaza and the West Bank will not stop UNRWA work in Gaza, he said.

"There is no option but for us to continue to provide the humanitarian assistance particularly in this very difficult time because there never was a greater need and yet it was never more difficult to deliver the assistance," he said.

Two Palestinian UN staff were killed among over 100 others in the Gaza Strip in the past week in Hamas-Fatah clashes, which ended with Hamas taking control of all Fatah security headquarters.

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