Magen David Adom (MDA) medics and paramedics provided medical treatment to a 19-year-old soldier, and transferred him to Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center in stable condition with a shrapnel wound to his upper body, after another barrage of rockets slammed the region surrounding the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on Tuesday afternoon.
The soldier's unit was overseeing the distribution of humanitarian aid to the Strip, as Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow for the transfer of gas, food and medicine to Gazan residents.
The IDF said that the mortars struck as a convoy of trucks carrying aid donated by international aid organizations was crossing into the coastal enclave. At least one mortar shell hit the Erez Crossing while several others were fired at the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Following the attack, the IDF suspended the entry of the rest of the trucks.
The border was closed last Sunday when police arrested 15 stone-throwers near the crossing.
The stone-throwing was part of sweeping unrest across the southern Levant, in which there was intense rioting in the Old City of Jerusalem, and consequent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
The border was last closed by Israel in August, when rocket fire and incendiary balloons from the coastal enclave barraged Israel's southern communities. At the time, it remained open for essential humanitarian aid and fuel, as was supposed to be the case again now.
Kerem Shalom is Gaza's main commercial crossing into Israel, and as such, its closing is reflective of the level of intensity that the escalations have reached.
Since the onset of the renewed conflict, twelve people in Israel have lost their lives from direct rocket fire.
Some 105 Israelis have been injured by shrapnel, an additional 194 while sprinting to bomb shelters and 218 more were treated for symptoms of post-traumatic stress, according to MDA.
Tovah Lazaroff, Tzvi Joffre and Idan Zonshine contributed to this report.