(JERUSALEM) - Humanitarian agencies on Friday urged the the Mideast Quartet -- the United States, Russia, United Nations and European Union -- at its meeting in London to press Israel to end its blockade of Gaza.

The agencies which work in the impoverished Palestinian territory called on the Quartet "to end its complacency by putting the highest diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government to lift the blockade on Gaza and allow in adequate supplies to stop an impending humanitarian crisis."

The British groups said the Israeli stranglehold on the sliver of land on the Mediterranean coast "has made life for ordinary people intolerable" and made it near impossible for UN and other aid agencies to work there.

"The collective complacency of the Quartet is putting the future of the people on the line," said Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam GB, one of agencies that signed the appeal.

Israel imposed a crippling blockage against the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza Strip in January, saying it was aimed at stopping militants from firing rockets at the Jewish state.

Foreign ministers of the Mideast Quartet were to hold talks in London on Friday to discuss the stalled Middle East peace process and the West's nuclear standoff with Iran.

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