Tel Aviv - Israel closed a pedestrian border crossing with the
Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to violence along the Gaza border on
Friday, an Israeli defence body said.
The move comes days after Israel eased restrictions on the Gaza Strip
amid efforts by Egypt and the United Nations to broker a ceasefire
between Israel and Gaza's rulers, the Islamist Hamas group.
A spokeswoman for Cogat, Israel's chief liaison office with the
Palestinians, said that Erez Crossing in the northern Gaza Strip will
remain open to humanitarian cases, journalists and aid workers.
The spokeswoman said the decision to close the crossing was made
after violence along the Gaza border on Friday.
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Friday when clashes
broke out during weekly protests in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Palestinians have held protests every Friday near the border since
March 30. The protesters, sometimes using violent tactics, are
calling for an end to the blockade on Gaza and a right of return to
lands now in Israel.
Israel says that Hamas - considered a terrorist group by the US and
much of the West - is using the protests as a mask to attempt attacks
on Israeli border communities.
Hamas is demanding that Israel lift a 11-year blocked of the Gaza
Strip in return for a ceasefire, while Israel is demanding - along
with the return of the captured Israelis - that Hamas cease firing
rockets, incendiary balloons and staging protests along the border.