The defense establishment has decided to reopen the Karni cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza on Tuesday morning, despite warnings of attacks in the Strip, Israel Radio reported.
According to the radio report, the crossing will be opened for a short amount of time, and only in order to let into the coastal strip limited foodstuffs.
Palestinian officials express concern over Karni closure
The Palestinians were hoping to bring into Gaza 100 trucks of food and medicine, about 20 of them carrying wheat, said the director-general of the Palestinian border authority, Salim Abu Safiah.
‘I hope that the Israelis will stick to their promises and will open Karni totally in the coming days,’ Abu Safiah said. ‘Gaza is suffering with the shortage of food stuffs.’
Israel opened the crossing for 25 minutes on Monday, allowing only Diet Coke, tea, potato chips, chocolate, sugar and 10 tons of wheat to enter Gaza, before closing it again, according to Palestinian security officials.
Israel had agreed to open the crossing to let goods enter Gaza in a meeting Sunday with Palestinian and American officials.
Karni opens and closes after new intelligence points at attack
Karni briefly reopened Monday, but was shut down again 30-40 minutes later due to new warnings of planned attacks on the terminal.
Karni, which is Gaza's main cargo crossing, has been shut down for much of the past three months due to repeated warnings of planned attacks by Palestinian groups. However, following an Israeli-Palestinian meeting on Sunday hosted by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert acceded to American urgings and agreed to a limited reopening of the crossing.
The terminal was duly reopened shortly after 2 P.M., but was then closed again shortly before 3 P.M. on orders from the Defense Ministry. According to defense sources, the renewed closure was ordered due to intelligence information about a planned Palestinian attack on Karni that was slated to take place in the immediate future. As of Monday night, it was not clear when the crossing might reopen.
According to Palestinian sources, some 70 tons of wheat - enough to supply Gaza for about one day - moved through the terminal during the 30-40 minutes it was open. That, however, is insufficient to alleviate the shortages of flour, sugar and rice that Palestinian and international officials say have resulted from Karni's prolonged closure. According to the Palestinian deputy economy minister, Nasser Sarraj, about 70 percent of Gaza's bakeries have closed due to lack of flour. The shortages have also caused a sharp rise in prices, and Palestinian and international officials have warned that without prompt measures to alleviate the situation, a severe humanitarian crisis is likely to erupt.
Israel has repeatedly offered to allow cargo through the Kerem Shalom crossing instead; but until Sunday, the Palestinian Authority had refused. At Sunday's meeting, however, PA officials finally relented, and Monday, United Nations agencies began trucking food from Ashdod Port through Kerem Shalom, which is located at the point where Israel, Gaza and Egypt meet. Tuesday, additional food is slated to enter Kerem Shalom from Egypt.
However, until various logistical problems are solved, Israeli officials say that only about 15 trucks a day will be able to pass through Kerem Shalom, which is insufficient to solve Gaza's problems. As a result, Olmert also decided to order a limited reopening of Karni.
A senior government source said that Olmert made the decision due to the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the international outrage it was beginning to provoke. However, the official denied that there was any high-level American pressure, saying all contacts on this issue had been handled by Jones.
One of the Palestinian officials who attended Sunday's meeting, which took place at Jones's residence in Herzliya, was Rashid Abu Shabak, the head of the PA's Preventative Security Service in Gaza. Israel had boycotted Abu Shabak for years, after the Shin Bet security service accused him of direct involvement in attacks at the start of the intifada, including a deadly attack on a school bus in Gaza in November 2000. Shortly before last summer's disengagement from Gaza, however, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lifted the ban on Abu Shabak, and since then, he has entered Israel for meetings on several occasions.