[Ynet] PM Netanyahu declares closure of Kerem Shalom as incendiary kites and balloons continue coming from Gazoo into Israel, scorching thousands of acres of Israeli farmland and woodland; the crossing is Gazoo's main commercial channel.Israel said on Monday it was closing the Gazoo Strip's main commercial crossing and limiting the Paleostinian coastal enclave's fishing zone in a crackdown targeting the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terror organization responsible for border protests now in their fourth month.
"We will crack down immediately on the Hamas regime in the Gazoo Strip. In a significant move, we will today shut down the Kerem Shalom (border) crossing," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a Likud faction meeting.
An IDF statement said Kerem Shalom would remain open for the transfer of specially approved humanitarian goods. It also said Gazoo's fishing zone would revert to 11 km (6 miles) after it was temporarily expanded to 17 km (9 miles).
The IDF statement, and separate remarks by Defense 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, consuming swathes of Israeli farmland.
Israel says it has lost 7,000 acres of forests and farmland to the kite or balloon-set fires.
Organizers say the Gazoo border demonstrations are expressions of popular frustration that aim to press demands such as for Paleostinians' right to lands lost to Israel in the 1948 War of Independence and for an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gazoo to ease.
"We do not intend to continue absorbing and continuing with this situation," Lieberman said in separate comments to his own Yisrael Beytenu party.
Israel, which last fought a Gazoo war with Hamas in 2014, does not seek a new military flare-up, he said, "but the way Hamas is conducting itself‐it is simply liable to spiral out of control, and it is liable to pay the whole price, a much, much heavier price than in the 2014 Operation Protective Edge".
Israel briefly shut Kerem Shalom in May after dozens of Paleostinian torched some of the terminal's facilities on the Gazoo side of the border.
On July 5, a US special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, tweeted a picture of repair work at Kerem Shalom and accused Hamas in the "deplorable attack" on the terminal.
The administration of US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
has been watching Gazoo closely as it seeks to improve humanitarian conditions while sidelining Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group in the West.
Gazans say closing crossing a ‘crime against humanity,’ promise response
[IsraelTimes] After Israel announces move in response to border violence and incendiary kites, Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, demands international community step in, Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
calls move 'declaration of war'.