Israel reopens Gaza border crossings

         
Israel on Thursday fully reopened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip after closing them last week following militant rocket fire into Israel during US President Barack Obama's visit to the region last week.         

Hours before the US leader visited the West Bank, Palestinian militants fired two rockets from Gaza into a southern Israeli city, causing damage but no injuries.        

The attack prompted Israel to close its only border crossing for commercial goods with the coastal territory, and to restrict its only civilian crossing to humanitarian cases only.        

It also limited the stretch of the sea where Gaza fishermen were allowed to fish.          

"The closure affected the residents of Gaza and the merchants, there are two million people living in Gaza" said Gazan truck driver, Taisir Abu Ida "of course after one week of closed crossing , the economy was negatively affected " he added.       

The Israeli military said it has reopened the commercial goods crossing, and is now allowing Palestinians with entry permits to cross into Israel through the civilian crossing. It said the fishing restrictions were still in place.         

Israel has taken to punishing Gaza residents for breaches of a November truce.


AP