GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s national and Islamic forces decided July 10 to escalate their popular protests that have been ongoing on the border with Israel since March 30. Their decision came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced July 9 that he would be tightening the siege on Gaza in a bid to punish Hamas for its continued launching of fire kites from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

Netanyahu's decision takes the Gaza Strip back to square one of the 2007 Israeli siege. Since the early morning of July 10, the Israeli army started implementing the sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip. These included regulating the entry of goods, preventing the export of goods through the only commercial crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and reducing the fishing zone for Palestinians.

According to the decision, the Israeli army would neither allow medical supplies nor other materials into Gaza without prior coordination. Netanyahu also vowed to take further steps against Hamas, but details of these steps are yet to be announced.

Raed Fattouh, the head of the coordination committee for the entry of goods at the Kerem Shalom crossing in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “As of July 10, Israel has indeed started banning the entry of goods into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing.”