Special report: Palestine-Israel
Relations
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Israel on Sunday reopened several border crossings into the Gaza Strip, following a four-day closure in response to truce-violating rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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JERUSALEM, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Sunday reopened several border crossings into the Gaza Strip, following a four-day closure in response to truce-violating rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave.
The Sufa commercial crossing, the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, the Erez crossing and the Karni crossing resumed operations on Sunday morning, with some restrictions, said an Israeli military spokesman.
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Israel on Sunday reopened several border crossings into the Gaza Strip, following a four-day closure in response to truce-violating rocket attacks from the Palestinian enclave.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery>>> |
The Jewish state opened its Gaza border crossings
after an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with militant groups in the Hamas-ruled strip
came into effect on June 19, but closed them again on Wednesday after the
Islamic Jihad (Holy War) fired three Qassam rockets at Sderot town on Tuesday in
revenge for the killing of one of its militants in the West Bank.
The ceasefire calls for the Gaza militants to stop
rocket fire and other attacks against Israel and for Israel to gradually lift
its siege on the enclave. But the deal does not apply to the West Bank.
Israel had been expected to reopen the crossings on
Friday, but a high-level security meeting late Thursday decided to drop the
plan, while greenlighting the transfer of 600,000 liters of industrial fuel into
the Strip for its sole power plant.
Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said in an
interview published Saturday that his group will arrest anyone who tries to
break the ceasefire and confiscate their weapons whether they are from Hamas or
the Islamic Jihad.
Israel besieged the Gaza Strip a year ago after Hamas
violently seized control of the territory, and then tightened the blockade in
response to continued rocket attacks, causing widespread shortages of basic
goods in the enclave.
The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and
Egypt, the main gateway to the outside world for some 1.4 million Gaza
residents, remains closed. Israeli officials have said that it will be opened
after Hamas returns Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was captured two years ago.
Israel reopens Gaza crossings, allows entry of fuel, goods
GAZA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel on Sunday gradually reopened Gaza border crossings and allowed truckloads of fuels and goods into the Gaza Strip, Hamas security sources and witnesses said. Full story
