Israel, blaming the continuous rocket firing at its towns, has resealed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (November 18). Earlier, on Monday Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there.

Informing the media about the “border-sealing” Peter Lerner, an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said that the crossings have been shut because of the ongoing rocket fire. Meanwhile, International aid groups said that the supplies sent in on Monday were not enough to alleviate the existing food shortages in the region.

Israel has also held up fuel shipments to Gaza's main power plant, leading to periodic electricity blackouts each day for many of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the territory. Until Monday, Israel had not allowed the United Nations agency that aids some 750,000 refugees in Gaza, to bring in supplies since November 4 during cross-border fighting in which more than a dozen Palestinian fighters were killed.