Another day of attacks by Hamas against southern Israel saw 24 fires started by kite and balloon bombs as well as rocket-fire at the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council area. In response, the government has decided to officially close the Kerem Shalom border crossing from Israel to the Gaza Strip which has been the main access point for goods to be transferred to the strip. According to the decision, food and gasoline will no longer be transferred to the Strip and the only items that will be allowed will be medicines.

“Due to continued attempts to carry out terror by the Hamas terror organization, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided, on the advice of the chief of staff, to close the Kerem Shalom crossing to fuel and gas until next Sunday”, a statement read from the Defense Ministry.

“Food and medicine will continue to be transferred and will be approved on an individual basis. Moreover, it has been decided to narrow the fishing zone in the Gaza Strip from a range of six nautical miles to three nautical miles,” the statement added.

Hamas warned Israel of “dangerous consequences” in a statement published on their website:

“The Israeli occupation’s closure of the Kerem Shalom crossing and depriving Gaza from the most simple necessities of life is a crime against humanity that will be added to its list of crimes at the expense of the Palestinian people including those living in the Strip.”

“These vengeful measures reflect the degree of the oppression and the ugliness of the crime that Gaza is facing, that will have dangerous consequences for which the occupation will bear full responsibility.”

In addition, the Egyptians announced that they were temporarily closing the Rafah crossing due to a “technical malfunction”.

The quiet was shattered once again in the afternoon when a rocket was fired from the strip towards the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council area north of the strip. The rocket fire set off a red alert siren for two of the local townships in the region. The IDF announced that the rocket had landed and exploded inside the strip itself.

Firefighters joined by Keren Kayemet L’yisrael workers and workers from the ministry for parks and nature worked tirelessly again on Monday to put out a large fire that had erupted in the Karmiyah nature reserve located between Karmiyah and Yad Mordechai. A balloon bomb that was launched from the Strip this morning had sparked the blaze which burned a large swath of the nature reserve and whose plume of smoke could be seen for miles.

Palestinian media reported that the IDF responded by attacking two lookout posts close in proximity to the location from which the balloon was launched.