Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies - German Development Aid Minister Dirk Niebel was denied entry into the Gaza Strip as part of his Middle East tour, German and Israeli news agencies reported on Saturday evening.

According to the German-language Spiegel Online Politik, Niebel was heading to Gaza to visit a a wastewater treatment plant, financed with German aid money. The news site said talks had continued to the last moment with Israeli officials over Niebel's visit.

Speaking on the German TV network ZDF program"heute" (today) Saturday evening, Niebel expressed his anger about being denied entry, the news site wrote.

"I would have wished for a clear political signal would be sent for an opening and for transparency," said Niebel, of Germany's liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

"Sometimes the Israeli government does not make it easy for its friends to explain why it behaves the way it does," he added.

Niebel said that Israel's latest announcement on easing the Gaza blockade was "inadequate" and that Israel must "now deliver" on its pledge.

Beyond that, the government in Jerusalem should be "clear about how Israel, within an international context, wants to cooperate with
its friends in the future as well," the German minister said, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Earlier Saturday, the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the German parliament is to issue a cross-party demand that Israel allow humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip by sea, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper wrote that a motion opposing Israel's blockade of Gaza had the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government coalition parties, as well as the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party.

"The living conditions for the civil population in Gaza must urgently be improved," the motion reportedly stated, according to the Israeli daily.

"Israel's Gaza blockade is effectively a blockade of the United Nations," the Greens' foreign spokeswoman Kerstin Mueller told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, adding: "This is unacceptable."

Mueller said Israel had to give the UN sea access to Gaza, so aid could be delivered "quickly and un-bureaucratically."

The motion reportedly calls upon the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to facilitate negotiations between Israel and the UN.

The report follows increased European calls, demanding Israel lift its blockade of the coastal enclave and facilitate the movement of Gaza residents, after Israel raided an aid fleet destined for the Strip in international waters, killing nine Turkish activists on board, including a dual US citizen.