UNITED NATIONS - Israels allies should threaten economic sanctions to persuade it to lift its stifling blockade of Gaza, a UN official says. Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the start of the deadly Israeli offensive into Gaza with a statement calling on European and North American countries to use their economic leverage to pressure Jerusalem into ending the blockade. People of conscience everywhere, as well as governments worldwide and the United Nations, should take note of the dire situation in Gaza, Falk said. The ordeal of the 1.5 million residents of Gaza affected by the Israeli blockade, over half of whom are children, has been allowed to continue without any formal objection by governments and at the [United Nations]. There is no evidence of meaningful international pressure being brought to bear to end the blockade or to ensure that Israeli and Hamas officials are held accountable for alleged war crimes perpetrated during the Gaza attacks, he said in the statement. This represents both a tragic failure of responsibility by the powerful governments of the world and of the UN, he added. Israel launched a devastating 22 day military offensive dubbed Operation Cast Lead on the Hamas-ruled territory on December 27, 2008. People of conscience everywhere, as well as governments worldwide and the United Nations, should take note of the dire situation in Gaza, said Falk. Falk said a three-year blockade had stopped enough food and medicine reaching civilians in Gaza, harming their physical and mental health, and was still hampering reconstruction. He also called for full and swift implementation of the conclusions of a UN human rights investigation led by Richard Goldstone. The Goldstone report adopted in October recommended that Israel and Hamas should face possible prosecution at the International Criminal Court, if they fail to conduct credible investigations into war crimes within six months. Falk called for the implementation of the Goldstone report.