By SPA
Tel Aviv : Israel’s defense minister has ordered all border crossings into Gaza temporarily closed, defense officials said, cutting off the flow of vital supplies into the besieged strip as Israeli towns near Gaza continue to reel under Palestinian rocket barrages, the Associated Press reported.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the decision late Thursday, the officials said, a day when Palestinians fired 40 rockets into Israel. The barrages continued Friday, with a Palestinian rocket hitting the Israeli town of Ashkelon, causing no casualties.
The defense ministry will decide whether to allow in individual shipments of crucial humanitarian aid, they said, but trucks bearing basic food items and other supplies will not enter Gaza for the next few days at least, they said.