By Jae Hur

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gold advanced for the first time in three days on speculation that escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and higher crude oil will boost the appeal of the precious metal as a haven and a hedge against inflation.

Oil gained as much as 5.1 percent after thousands of Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip, escalating a conflict in the Middle East, the largest oil producing region. Troops crossed the border on Jan. 3 in a bid to capture bases Hamas militants have used to launch rocket attacks on the country.

“The geopolitical conflict has been supporting crude oil as well as bullion prices,” Tatsuo Kageyama, an analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, said today by phone.

Gold for immediate delivery added as much as 1.1 percent to $884.65 an ounce and traded at $880.65 at 9:45 a.m. in Tokyo. Gold advanced 5.8 percent last year, a record eighth annual advance. Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.9 percent to $11.67 an ounce. The metal fell 23 percent last year, its worst performance since 1984.

February-delivery gold gained 0.2 percent to $881 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude oil for February delivery rose 2.6 percent to $47.55 a barrel at 9:51 a.m. Tokyo time. The dollar last traded at $1.3952 per euro from $1.3921 late in New York on Jan. 2.

December-delivery gold on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange rallied 1.4 percent to 2,609 yen per gram ($881 an ounce) at 9:52 a.m. in Tokyo. December-delivery platinum rose 4.2 percent to 2,762 yen a gram.

Immediate-delivery platinum fell 0.9 percent to $938 an ounce. The metal, used in pollution-control devices in cars and trucks, fell 39 percent last year, the steepest drop since at least 1988.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net