Israel closes Gaza border crossings
Israel announced the closure of its Gaza border crossings yesterday in response to daily rocket fire from the enclave over the past week after U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital stoked Palestinian anger.
Israeli aircraft struck three facilities belonging to Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, before dawn on Thursday after the latest rocket attacks, Israel's military said.
It said it targeted training camps and weapons storage compounds. Hamas usually evacuates such facilities when border tensions spike.
Two of the rockets fired by militants were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system and a third exploded in an open area. There were no reports of casualties on either side of the frontier.
The military said in a statement that "due to the security events and in accordance with security assessments" Kerem Shalom crossing - the main passage point for goods entering the Gaza Strip, and the Erez pedestrian crossing - would be shut as of Thursday. It did not say how long the closure would last.
Some 15 rockets have been fired into southern Israel since Trump's Dec 6 announcement, and none of the projectiles has caused serious injury or damage.
The attacks have drawn Israeli air strikes that have killed two Hamas gunmen. Two other Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with Israeli troops during stone-throwing protests along the border.
Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Israel Radio that while Hamas, which last fought a war with Israel in 2014, was not carrying out the rocket strikes, it needed to rein in militants from "breakaway groups" or it would "find itself in a situation where it has to contend" with the Israeli military.
In Istanbul on Wednesday, a summit of more than 50 Muslim countries condemned Trump's move and called on the world to respond by recognising East Jerusalem, captured by Israel along with the West Bank in a 1967 war, as the capital of Palestine.
Trump's declaration has been applauded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a recognition of political reality and Jews's biblical links to Jerusalem, a city that is also holy to Muslims and Christians.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister yesterday said the US administration is serious about getting a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, but its proposed plan is still being put together.
Trump's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is leading efforts to restart negotiations, though his bid has shown little public progress so far.
"We believe the Trump administration is serious about bringing peace between Israelis and Arabs," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, a former ambassador to the United States, told France 24 television late on Wednesday.
"They were working on ideas and were consulting with all parties, including Saudi Arabia, and they are incorporating the views represented to them by everybody. They have said they would need a little bit of time to put it together to present it."
Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel overturned decades of US policy and ignored international consensus that the city's status should be decided only in a future peace agreement.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern part which it annexed after capturing it in a 1967 war. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as capital of a future independent state of their own.
The Trump administration argues that any credible peace plan would put the Israeli capital in Jerusalem, and that moving past the question can help unblock a peace process frozen since 2014. Washington says Trump's decision does not affect Jerusalem's borders or future status which can still be decided in talks.
Trump's aides say the peace plan could be released early next year and the US president has said he hoped for an agreed two-state deal between the two sides.
Jubeir emphasized that Riyadh continued to support a two-state solution, which Washington had indicated to the Saudis was its working proposal.
Jubeir also denied the Sunni Muslim kingdom had any relations with Israel despite sharing Israel's concern about the regional influence of Shia Iran. He repeated that Riyadh had a "roadmap" to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel should there be a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel also says it is waiting for Washington to finish drawing up a peace plan.
"The Americans are preparing a peace deal. They did not tell us the details. They did not speak about a 'Deal of the Century'. Rather, they asked what we can accept, and they asked the Palestinians the same thing. And they will offer – as they put it – something creative,” Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said in interview with Saudi-owned news site Elaph, published on Wednesday.
Comments