Kerem Shalom crossing to reopen Sunday

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the reopening on Sunday of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza.

The crossing was closed last week to the transfer of goods from Israel to the Gaza Strip following Tuesday’s killing of 22-year-old Saleh Abu Latif, an Israeli working on the border fence who was shot from inside Gazan territory. The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees later claimed credit for the attack.

The attack, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “a very serious incident,” drew in response an IAF airstrike, which, according to Palestinian sources in the strip, killed two people, including a three-year-old child, and injured nine.

The Gaza clashes came alongside a series of terror incidents inside Israel last week, including an attempted bus bombing in Bat Yam. Israeli sources blamed Hamas for the attacks, saying that the Islamic terror group has neglected its duties under agreements reached following last year’s Operation Pillar of Defense according to which Hamas was responsible for patrolling the Gazan side of the border and preventing attacks on Israel from the Strip.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.