Israeli army decided to keep all the border crossings with the Gaza Strip closed on Thursday after receiving intelligence indicating that Palestinian militants were planning to attack a border terminal, local daily Ha'aretz reported.
The no-go decision was also made after Gazan militants fired mortar shells and rockets at southern Israel earlier in the day, a day after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed four Hamas gunmen who they said were trying to plant a bomb along the border.
The border crossings will not be opened today, despite our plans, due to the continued rocket fire and security threats at the crossings," IDF spokesman Peter Lerner was quoted as saying.
The continuing red light scrapped an originally planned delivery of EU-funded fuel and some 30 truckloads of food and other humanitarian supplies into the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Officials in Gaza warned that the only power plant there would have to shut down and a UN relief agency would be forced to suspend food distribution.
Also on Thursday, Israel denied the request of 20 EU consul-generals to enter the Gaza Strip, citing the recent upsurge in clashes between Israeli troops and Gazan militants, said the report, adding that the consuls had planned to meet with businessmen and human rights activists in Gaza and learn about the humanitarian situation.
The clashes, which started last week when IDF paratroopers killed six Hamas gunmen in an operation inside Gaza and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets, have further rattled the five-month-old Egypt-brokered truce between Israel and Gazan militant groups.
Concerns are mounting that the shaky truce, which both sides had generally honored before the flare-ups, might collapse as its initial six-month phase is approaching the end, although Israeli officials have voiced willingness to extend the deal.
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2008)
