The Times of Israel reports: Amid criticism over his government’s response to ongoing violence on the Gaza border, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that Israel will close the Kerem Shalom border crossing that serves as the main entry point for commercial goods and humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave.

“We will double our efforts against Hamas,” Netanyahu told his Likud faction meeting in the Knesset to the applause of party activists. The prime minister said that the Kerem Shalom closure will be coupled with “other measures that I won’t go into.”

Speaking at his own Yisrael Beytenu party’s faction meeting, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that he had instructed the IDF “to take a number of steps” to respond to “Hamas provocations” on the border. “They will start to understand that it doesn’t work in just one direction,” he said.

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