TEL AVIV (Sputnik) — The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that two Israeli border crossings with the Gaza Strip will be closed on Thursday over security concerns.
"Due to security-related incidents and after analyzing the current situation, the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is used for goods transfer, and the Erez pedestrian crossing will be closed tomorrow," the Army press service said.
On December 13, Hamas announced the start of the third "intifada," saying that the rocket shelling aimed at Israel from Palestinian territories is a matter of self-defense rights for Palestinians and that the movement had been provoked by the United States.
The Israeli Defense Forces on Thursday fired at three sites in the Gaza Strip that they linked to Hamas, in retaliation for a series of rocket strikes.
"Tonight, in response to the rockets fired at Israel, the IDF targeted 3 Hamas terror facilities across Gaza using IAF [Israeli Air Force] platforms. The terror facilities were used as training & weapons storage compounds," the IDF spokesperson tweeted.
The IAF intercepted two rockets on Wednesday that it said were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. Two more were fired shortly after that and fell in an open area in southern Israel.
UPDATE: At total of 4 rockets were fired from the Gaza strip into southern Israel, 2 were intercepted by the Iron Dome battery and 2 landed in open fields, a number of people treated for shock pic.twitter.com/bAW01LSvUP
— News_Executive (@News_Executive) 13 декабря 2017 г.
The IDF spokesman said Israel held Hamas responsible for the "poverty, destruction, and despair" of the population of the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for a decade.
