Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    GAZA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Director of Crossings Salim Abu Safeya condemned on Saturday the Israeli closure of the key Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border.

    Abu Safeya accused Israel of blocking the European Union monitors, who oversee the Rafah terminal, from reaching the crossing.

    The monitors are living in Israel's coastal city of Ashkelon and need to use the Kerem Shalom crossing, near Rafah, to get to Rafah.

    The Palestinian official also rejected an Israeli proposal to let Palestinians use Kerem Shalom instead.

    "We reject to replace Rafah crossing, which is under Palestinian control, with any other crossing," Abu Safeya told local radio "Voice of Palestine."

    Abu Safeya also said that 8,000 Palestinians were currently stranded at Rafah, which had been shut down by Israel after a June 25 cross-border Palestinian militant attack on an Israeli army post during which two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third was kidnapped.

    The crossing is the only terminal for Palestinians to travel in and out of the Gaza Strip.

    Under a U.S.-brokered deal between Israel and the Palestinians last October, the Rafah crossing has been co-operated by Palestinian and Egyptian security forces under the inspection of EU monitors.

    Israeli troops crossed the border and entered the southern Gaza Strip on June 28 on a massive ground offensive to rescue the kidnapped Israeli soldier. Enditem