Israel again sealed off the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday in retaliation for a rocket attack the previous day in breach of a truce in and around the impoverished Palestinian enclave.
Military authorities closed the three border crossing points that had been used mainly to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza since Israel imposed a blockade following the Islamist Hamas movement’s bloody June 2007 takeover.
It wasn’t immediately clear when border crossings would reopen.
”We’ll review the situation at the end of the day and then take a decision,” said Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner.
On Monday a rocket landed in an open field in southern Israel, causing no damage or casualties, according to Israeli police. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Egyptian-mediated truce agreement between Israel and Hamas entails a gradual easing of the blockade, but the border crossings have been closed most days since June 19 in response to rocket attacks by Gaza militants.
Hamas has insisted it is respecting the truce and trying to prevent other armed groups from firing rockets at southern Israel by vowing to arrest those responsible for the attacks.
Palestinians and United Nations officials have said Israeli soldiers had also violated the truce, firing shots across the border into Gaza several times, wounding at least two people.
On Tuesday, in the latest incident, Aisha Ataya, a 35-year-old woman, was shot in the foot near the border east of the southern town of Khan Yunis, according to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.
Witnesses said the woman was hit when Israeli troops posted along the border opened fire on a group of farmers.
But an Israeli military spokesperson said that after a ”preliminary investigation” the army was ”not familiar” with the incident.
The army, despite witness comments, denies that it has shot any Palestinians since the truce came into effect, saying troops have only fired warning shots in the air. It said these had not caused casualties.
In violations from the Palestinian side, two people were lightly wounded on June 24 when three rockets were fired at southern Israel. The attack was claimed by the Islamic Jihad movement, which later agreed to abide by the ceasefire.
On Thursday a rocket fired by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to the Fatah movement of secular Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, hit near the Israeli town of Sderot.
Hamas, which has vowed to detain militants who breach the truce, briefly held the Brigades’ spokesperson after the attack.
The Islamist rulers of Gaza say that, by keeping border crossings closed, the Jewish state is not keeping to its part of the truce.
”The closure of the crossings by the Zionist occupation [Israel] is an obstruction to the terms of the period of calm and is aimed at blackmailing the Palestinian resistance factions,” Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhum said.
Israel claims it has always allowed enough supplies into Gaza to avert a humanitarian disaster, but international organisations say the sanctions have exacerbated poverty and destroyed the local economy. — AFP
