GAZA CITY: Israel kept commercial goods crossings into the Gaza Strip closed Friday after a Palestinian rocket attack the day before tested a week-old truce and drew criticism from the territory s Hamas rulers.
Meanwhile, two mortar rounds struck an open field on the Israeli side of the Gaza border on Friday, army radio said. The military confirmed there had been two explosions but said it had not yet identified the cause of the blasts.
On Thursday, Palestinian militants fired two rockets, one of which struck a field near the hard-hit southern Israeli town of Sderot without causing any casualties or damage.
The attack was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized control of the territory over a year ago.
Hamas criticized the attack, accusing parties in Ramallah – the West Bank town where Abbas s government is based – of ordering the strike to help Israel maintain its blockade of the territory.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the attack does not serve anyone but the [Israeli] occupation by giving it a justification for its continuing siege on our people.
He went on to vow that Hamas will take all actions necessary to protect the national consensus [on the truce], and said the group behind the attack bore full responsibility, along with Israel, for the siege.
The Israeli military had earlier said goods crossings into Gaza would remain shut following Thursday s rocket attack.
The Karni and Sufa crossings remain closed, but the Nahal Oz fuel crossing is open, Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told AFP, adding that the opening of the goods crossings would depend on the security situation.
The Erez passenger crossing, used by diplomats, journalists, and Gazans requiring medical care in Israel or abroad, also remained open.
Thursday s rocket was the fourth to hit Israel since an Egyptian-brokered truce between the Jewish state and Palestinian militants took effect on June 19.
Palestinians and UN officials have meanwhile said the Israeli army fired shots across the border on several occasions over the past week, wounding a farmer and another man.
But the army denied this, saying troops have only fired warning shots in the air without causing casualties.
The agreement was supposed to halt all Palestinian attacks and Israeli military operations in and around the besieged Gaza Strip and eventually lead to the easing of an Israeli blockade of the impoverished territory.
Since Hamas seized power in June 2007 Israel has sealed Gaza off to all but limited humanitarian aid, spawning widespread fuel shortages and crippling the local economy in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people.
The Islamic Jihad group on Tuesday fired three rockets at Israel in what it said was revenge for the death of one of its commanders in a gun battle with Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank, which is not included in the truce.
Israel responded to the rockets by shutting Gaza s crossings, but has not resumed the near-daily air strikes and ground incursions it carried out in the months leading up to the truce. -AFP
