Peace holds key to border reopening: Israel
occupied jerusalem — Israel will reopen its only goods crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Tuesday if calm is maintained, a minister said, after having closed it July 9.
UN officials meanwhile warned that the Gaza Strip was facing serious fuel shortages affecting hospitals as well as water and sanitation facilities, calling for restrictions to be lifted.
Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said that “if today and tomorrow the situation continues as it was yesterday, then on Tuesday we will allow Kerem Shalom (goods crossing) to return to normal activity and the fishing zones will return to the same distances as before”.
Lieberman stressed that calm also meant an end to kites and balloons
carrying firebombs over the border fence from the Palestinian enclave to burn Israeli farmland.
Lieberman said “the key is quiet, calm, zero firebombs, zero friction on the fence and zero rockets or, God forbid, shooting”.
Lieberman’s comments came after a ceasefire was reached following a major flare-up of violence between
Palestinians and Israel on Friday.
Israel announced on July 9 that the goods crossing was being closed to most deliveries partly in response to the firebombs and other incidents along the border fence. On July 17, it further tightened the restrictions to also prevent fuel deliveries while reducing the fishing zone Israel enforces off Gaza to three nautical miles from six.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Jamie McGoldrick, said on Sunday that “supplies of emergency fuel provided by the UN for critical facilities in Gaza are being fast depleted”.
He called on Israel to end restrictions on fuel imports and warned hospitals could soon be forced to close, with emergency supplies set to run out in early August.
“Given ongoing blackouts of about 20 hours a day, if fuel does not come in immediately, people’s lives will be at stake, with the most vulnerable patients, like cardiac patients, those on dialysis, and newborns in intensive care, at highest risk,” he said in a statement.