Israeli Defense Ministry on Wednesday recommended that Gaza should be penalized seven megawatt-hours of electricity cutting off following every Qassam rocket attack.
The recommendation is one of the punitive measures that were raised by a committee set up by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and representatives of the Israeli army, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the Jerusalem Post said in its website.
The committee also suggested to stop the supply of mazut -- a special diesel fuel for power plants in Gaza.
In addition, the defense authorities decided to automatically close a Gaza crossing for 48 hours after every mortar or Qassam attack on Israel.
Israel provides around 62.5 percent of Gaza's electricity, and 28.6 percent comes from Gaza's power plant and about 8.9 percent from Egypt, according to Stuart Shepherd with the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Some Israeli defense officials were quoted as saying that the cutting of electricity would not be enough to stop the Qassam attacks.
The only real way to pressure Hamas, they said, was to completely cut off supplies to Gaza and allow a humanitarian crisis to develop.
"This is not something that we are going to do," an unidentified official said. "But it is really the only way."
On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army announced a general closure of the West Bank and Gaza ahead of the week-long Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Last week, Israeli cabinet decided to label the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip an "enemy entity," paving the way for economic sanctions in response to frequent cross-border rocket attacks against the Jewish state.
Source: Xinhua
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