Israel has tightened its closure of the Gaza Strip after on Monday morning it closed its southern Suffa border, a military spokeswoman said. The only crossing left open for humanitarian aid is the Kerem Shalom crossing, near the border with Egypt, the report said.

Israel’s main goods crossing to Gaza, the Karni commercial terminal east of Gaza City, was closed in June following the hostile takeover of the region by the radical Islamic Hamas movement.

The recent measures adopted by the Israeli government to reduce electricity and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip, were criticized by the human rights organizations who actually sent a petition urging the officials to overrule the government’s decision, but it was rejected by the Highest Court of Justice.

Israel’s decision to cut electric and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip was taken as a response to the near-daily rocket attacks from the area at southern Israel. The Highest Court of Justice, although it had rejected the above mentioned petition, has ordered the state to phrase an argument in the next five days as to why the measures against Gaza should not be disallowed, Israel Radio reported.

In accordance with the sayings of Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the only alternative that would stop the rocket attacks would be a large-scale military invasion of Gaza, but that would risk the lives of many civilians.

Meanwhile, the Israeli soldiers based near the southern Gaza border exchanged fire on Monday morning with Palestinian gunmen. The army reported that the soldiers hit one Palestinian, but it was not clear whether he was killed or just wounded.

The Israeli troops located at the Gaza border frequently stage raids into the region in an attempt to stop the Palestinian militants from firing short-range rockets into Israel.

The officials at a Gaza hospital said that a Palestinian civilian was wounded as well in the town of Beit Hanoun by the bullets shot from an Israeli unit on the border. The army had no immediate comment.