Israel shuts Erez crossing with Gaza

Israel on Wednesday closed the Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military.

In a statement, the army said the terminal was closed due to damage to infrastructure caused by “riots” on the Palestinian side of the crossing.

The crossing will be reopened once the damage has been repaired, the statement said.

It remains unclear for how long the terminal will be closed.

Hundreds of Palestinians staged a rally near the crossing on Tuesday as part of ongoing protests against Israel’s decades-long occupation and an 11-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, which gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly 2 million inhabitants of basic commodities.

Blockaded by Israel -- by air, land and sea -- since 2007, the Gaza Strip has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world.

Six of these, including the Erez crossing, are controlled by Israel, while the seventh – the Rafah crossing -- is controlled by Egypt, which keeps it tightly sealed for the most part since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in a 2013 military coup.

Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in June 2007 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas wrested control of the strip from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.