Border crossings into Gaza have been closed by both Egypt and Israel, amid claimed rocket fire toward southern Israel and Cairo’s creation of a “buffer zone”.
Egypt has begun clearance of the area around the Rafah crossing, with the evacuation of residents, following attacks in the northern Sinai Peninsula that killed more than 30 Egyptian security forces.
Israel shut the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings until further notice, following the Israel military’s report of a rocket fired on Friday towards the Eshkol area. It was not clear if the rocket landed in Israel or within Gaza, and there were no siren alerts.
The closure of both crossings is the first since the ceasefire after this summer’s 50-day war between Israel and Gaza.
The Gaza Interior Ministry said on Saturday that Egypt’s closure of the Rafah Crossing would “aggravate the suffering of thousands of patients and students”.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade, restricting supplies into the territory, since Hamas consolidated its leadership of the area in 2007.
A discussion on Al Jazeera English of Egypt’s creation of the buffer zone:
Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin; Professor Emeritus of International Politics at the University of Birmingham; and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView.He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in November 2008.
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