The Israeli occupation said on Monday it was closing the Gaza Strip’s main commercial crossing and limiting the Palestinian coastal enclave’s fishing zone in a crackdown because of the border protests now in their fourth month.
“We will crack down immediately in the Gaza Strip. In a significant move, we will today shut down the Kerem Shalom (border) crossing,” Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks to his parliament faction.
The military statement, and separate remarks by Israeli war Minister Avigdor Lieberman, linked the new measures to fires from incendiary kites and helium balloons that have been flown over the border since the protests began on March 30.
The Israeli occupation army has killed 136 Palestinians during the confrontations. Facing international censure.
Organizers say the demonstrations are expressions of popular frustration that aim to press demands such as for Palestinians’ right to lands lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its foundation and for an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza to ease.
