Israel must go beyond easing its blockade of Gaza and throw open its long-closed border, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has said.
Lady Ashton urged the international community to pressure Israel to end the blockade.
She is the most senior Western official to go to Gaza since Israel partly eased curbs on goods entering the territory.
Israel tightened its blockade in 2007 after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza.
Lady Ashton did not have any official meetings with Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza. Its authority is not recognised by the EU, Israel or the US, who describe it as a terrorist organisation.
She went on to the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, which has been regularly targeted by Palestinian rocket attacks.
Her three-day visit to the region comes as peace envoy George Mitchell holds further talks between Israel and West Bank Palestinians in an attempt to restart direct negotiations.
BBC News
