Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to Hamas on Sunday, amid escalating violence along the Israel-Gaza border, saying that Israel was nearing a "different kind" of response that will be "painful, very painful."
"If Hamas has any sense, it will cease its fire and its violence right now," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. "Hamas has apparently failed to get the message. If they don't stop their attacks themselves, the attacks will be stopped in some other way."
The remarks came after a particularly violent weekend along the border, involving 20,000 Palestinian rioters along the border, breaches of the security fence and an attempt to snatch a soldier's weapon, among other violent incidents. Seven Palestinians were killed in the clashes.
On Saturday, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared that Israel would not renew the supply of much-needed fuel to the Gaza Strip if the clashes continue.
"As long as the violence, including the launch of arson balloons and the burning tires near Israeli communities, doesn't end completely, the supply of fuels and gas will not be renewed," Lieberman tweeted.
Between 15 and 20 truckloads of diesel fuel and gasoline enter the Gaza Strip daily, as do six or seven trucks carrying natural gas. These fuels are viewed as essential to maintaining life in the enclave.
Also Saturday, IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus tweeted that a group of some 20 Palestinians had climbed through a hole they blew in the fence with a bomb.
The IDF reported that it had the rioters under surveillance from the moment they crossed the border, and once the Palestinians realized they had been spotted, most of them returned to Gaza.
However, five of them launched an attack on an IDF post. Soldiers fired at them, killing all five.
Sgt. Omer Kaplan was the lookout who noticed the fence breach amid the chaos.
"The suspects used the cover of smoke [in the air] and the violent protests to approach IDF outposts, but I saw them, informed the soldiers via radio, and they fired warning shots," Kaplan said.
"Most of them [the Palestinians] retreated, but I saw one who remained where he was and I lost eye contact with him. We reviewed the incident in real time and informed the forces on the ground that there was definitely another terrorist. One of the soldiers identified him and shot him," Kaplan continued.
In a separate incident, a man who crossed the fence in the northern part of Gaza was arrested on the spot. He did not have a weapon and was handed over to security agents for questioning.
Lieberman's orders to stop the shipments of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip came after four Israeli fuel trucks entered Gaza on Friday, as per a decision last week to renew the fuel supply in an attempt to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and tamp down the protests. The riots, held weekly and sometimes more often than that since the end of March, have been organized and encouraged by Hamas.
Despite the shipment of fuel, Friday's protests were especially violent. Rioters threw explosive devices at security personnel, launched balloons carrying firebombs over the fence and sparking 10 wildfires in Israeli territory. Many rioters tried to overrun the fence and attack IDF soldiers on duty.
A spokesman for Lieberman said that "Israel will not accept a situation in which, on the one hand, it allows fuel trucks into Gaza, and on the other hand, IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians are the targets of terrorism and violence."
"Moreover, Hamas continues to give its blessing to every terrorist attack and encourage Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. In light of that, Defense Minister Lieberman has decided to stop the supply of fuel to Gaza immediately," the statement said.
Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh spoke at the funeral of one of the Palestinians killed in Friday's rioting and dismissed reports that an Egypt-mediated cease-fire agreement was imminent between Hamas and Israel.
"Gaza is fighting to topple [U.S. President Donald] Trump's 'deal of the century.' The marches of return will end only when the siege on Gaza is lifted," Haniyeh said.
"The marches are not for diesel [fuel] or gasoline and our people have the right to continue them. We appreciate the efforts to throw off the siege, but we will not accept partial solutions. The martyrs' blood will not be spilled in vain," the Hamas leader vowed.
According to Palestinian media reports, Haniyeh himself sustained light smoke inhalation injuries on Friday. Footage filmed at the riots show his security guards moving him away from one of the protests in central Gaza.
Seven Palestinians were killed in the border riots on Friday, with another 140 wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported this weekend, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in the violence since the protests launched in March to some 200.
Israel contends that dozens of the Palestinian casualties have been Hamas operatives rather than innocent civilian protesters, as the organization claims.
