Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday that Israel is halting the supply of petroleum and natural gas to Gaza in response to the flow of incendiary balloons and kites across the border.
Liberman said in a statement on Wednesday night that Israel would terminate fuel supplies to the territory through the Kerem Shalom because of “continued terror of flaming balloons and friction on the border.”
He said the measure starts Thursday.
Israel temporarily suspended fuel shipments to Gaza in July for similar reasons.
Incendiary balloons and kites, many set off during border protests, have caused fires in southern Israel.
Palestinians see them as legitimate resistance against Israel’s decade-long blockade of the territory.
The coastal enclave suffers from a severe lack of electricity and relies on fuel-powered generators during outages that last hours at a time.
Israel controls all access to and from the territory apart from Rafah, a single crossing with Egypt which has been only rarely opened.
