May 5 (BBC/GNA) – Israel has closed the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza after Hamas fired rockets from within the strip, the military has said.
At least 10 people were injured, some seriously, Israeli media report.
The crossing is one of the few routes to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The attack came as mediators in Egypt held talks to broker a ceasefire – and to release Israeli hostages. Israel has said it will not accept Hamas’s demands to end the Gaza war.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said 10 projectiles were fired from an area near the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza, located approximately 3.6km (2.2 miles) from Kerem Shalom.
According to the IDF, they were fired from a site some 350m from a civilian shelter and were “another clear example of the systematic exploitation that the Hamas terror organisation makes of humanitarian facilities and spaces for terror needs, while using the civilian population as a human shield”.
Israeli fighter jets then struck the launcher from where they were fired and another military structure close by, it said in a statement.
The war began after waves of Hamas gunmen stormed across Gaza’s border into Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. The group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many Western countries.
During the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza, more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and over 77,900 wounded, according to figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
GNA/Credit: BBC