Tel Aviv - Israel reopened border crossings into Gaza on
Sunday, security sources told dpa, amid a major flare-up of protests
and rocket fire along the border over the weekend.
Israel had responded to a Palestinian missile attack that hit a house
north-east of Tel Aviv on Monday by closing the Erez crossing and
Kerem Shalom crossing points into the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip again fired missiles into the
Israeli border area on Saturday night, after tens of thousands
demonstrated to mark the one-year anniversary of the Great March of
Return protests.
The Israeli army said that tanks responded to the missiles with
attacks on several Hamas posts in the Gaza strip.
Meanwhile four Palestinian demonstrators were killed and more than
300 injured in clashes with the Israeli army on the Gaza border on
Friday night and Saturday after violence erupted between protestors
and Israeli soldiers.
Israeli media reported that Israel had agreed to a reopening of the
crossings following the relative restraint on the key anniversary of
the border fence demonstrations.
The Great March of Return protests, which have been taking place
every week since they began a year ago, call for the right of return
of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to the territory of
today's Israel, as well as for an end to the 12-year-long blockade
imposed by Israel.
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 270 Palestinians have
been killed and thousands more injured in protests in the past year,
while one Israeli soldier was shot dead.