Israel reopens people crossing with Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM: Israel reopened its only crossing for people with the Gaza Strip, a week after shutting it over violence along the border with the Palestinian enclave.

The reopening yesterday, following days of relative calm, comes as Egypt holds talks with Palestinian officials as part of efforts to reach a longterm truce with Israel.

A spokesman for the Israeli defence ministry unit that oversees the Erez crossing confirmed it had opened as planned yesterday morning.

On Sunday night, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the crossing was being reopened due to “calm that has been maintained over the past week”.

Israel closed the crossing except to humanitarian cases on Aug 19, after another round of protests and clashes on the border with the Hamasrun Gaza Strip.

It has enforced an air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, but grants permission to a limited number of people to cross for various reasons.

An average of 1,000 Gazans cross through Erez each day, mostly those in need of medical care but also businesspeople, students and others, Israeli authorities say.

A second crossing with Israel, Kerem Shalom, is for goods.

Egyptian and United Nations officials have been mediating indirect talks on a longterm truce between Israel and militant movement Hamas, which have fought three wars since 2008.

Egyptian officials have held talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah this week in a renewed bid to reconcile the movement with Hamas.

The two factions have been deeply divided for more than a decade and Abbas is opposed to any truce with Israel that bypasses his Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank. — AFP