Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry will do everything in its power to prevent Hamas' scheduled protest for Friday, in which the terrorist group plans on burning tens of thousands of car tires.
"The Ministry of Environmental Protection's readiness teams are increasing the border area of the Gaza Strip towards tomorrow, with particle gauges, beyond the firefighting teams, with a total of 9 or 10 teams on the ground," a representative told the Maariv newspaper.
"We will monitor the weather forecast and run different models of particle dispersion. As necessary, we can give instructions to the residents and order them to go indoors."
The mass stockpiling of tires for the coming protest has caused much concern, and led to fears that the protest may deteriorate into an environmental disaster.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, sent a letter to the head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday, urging the body to take a stand against the "ecological disaster".
"The Hamas terrorist organization, which controls the Gaza Strip, has issued an order to burn tens of thousands of tires this Friday along the border with Israel," wrote Mordechai. "The burning of tires in such a huge quantity will cause severe damage to the ecosystem in the area, will severely harm the life, the flora, and health of the residents, and will add to the severe damage to the aquifer and lead to unprecedented air pollution."