GAZA CITY, Nov 25: Israel reacted on Tuesday to militant rocket fire by again sealing off the Gaza Strip, where officials said the territory’s sole power plant was forced to shut down because of the crippling blockade.

The renewed closure of the impoverished Palestinian enclave came a day after humanitarian supplies were allowed in for the second time since Israel tightened its blockade following a November 4 surge in violence.

“After rockets were fired at the Israeli territory, Defence Minister Ehud Barak decided, following consultations with security services officials, that the crossing points will be closed on Tuesday,” the defence ministry said.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at southern Israel on Monday, causing no casualties or damage, a military spokesman said.

On Monday, 30 truckloads of humanitarian and other basic goods were delivered to Gaza. The Israeli authorities had previously opened the Kerem Shalom border crossing for only one day since the flare-up at the beginning of the month.

Israel also opened the Karni crossing conveyor belt on Monday to deliver wheat and grain as well as the Nahal Oz terminal for the delivery of fuel to the power plant.

But Israeli authorities have made it clear the crossings will open again only if Gaza militants respect a truce that went into effect on June 19 but has been rattled by the upsurge in violence.

The closure of the crossings has led to international concern over the plight of people in the overcrowded sliver of land whose economy has been crippled by a blockade Israel imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007.On Tuesday, Gaza’s sole power plant, which provides 25 to 30 percent of the energy used in the territory, ground to a halt, according to Kanaan Obeid, assistant director of Gaza’s energy authority.

“Despite deliveries of fuel on Monday, the power plant stopped functioning because of breakdowns in the production units,” he said.

He said the frequent shutdowns of the plant caused by fuel shortages damaged parts of the production units that cannot be replaced because of the blockade.

Israel “refuses to allow in the necessary parts and the plant cannot restart without them,” he said.

The plant has been particularly hard hit by the blockade, and Gazans regularly experience blackouts.

Hamas says Israel has not been keeping its side of the truce by refusing to ease the blockade, while Israeli authorities insist Gaza militants must first hold their fire.

Speaking in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and that Israel had nothing to be ashamed of.

“The crossings were closed because they returned to fire Qassams (makeshift rockets) and Grads (military-grade rockets) and we did not want to take the security responsibility over the people going through crossings,” the outgoing premier said.—AFP