Palestine: Gaza exports to Israel resume as Karm Abu Salem crossing reopens

Gaza Strip exports to Israel resumed on Sunday as Israel reopened a trade crossing, days after shutting it over an alleged attempt to smuggle explosives from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, the only point of entry for goods between Gaza and Israel, was closed last week after the Israeli army said it found explosives hidden in a clothing delivery carried in three trucks.

Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi on Monday ordered an immediate halt of all commercial deliveries from Gaza to Israel following the alleged attempt to "smuggle high-quality explosives".

Impoverished Gaza, home to around 2.3 million Palestinians, is under a crushing land, air and sea blockade imposed by Israel, whose defence ministry controls all crossings except Rafah which is controlled by Egypt.

On Sunday morning, the Karm Abu Salem gateway was reopened, said Raed Fattouh, head of the Presidential Committee for the Coordination of Goods, which is affiliated to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

"Several trucks, including one loaded with readymade clothes and others loaded with scrap iron, entered the crossing this morning and headed towards the Israeli side," he told AFP.

COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for carrying out civilian affairs policy concerning Gaza, confirmed the reopening of the crossing from Sunday at 06:00 local time (0300 GMT) "following the conclusion of a security assessment".

Palestinian businesses had warned that shutting the crossing would trigger a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip.

"When the Kerem Shalom crossing is open we have work, otherwise we will die because we won't be able to export our vegetables," Atta Tabasi, an exporter of tomatoes, told AFP.

The closure of the Karm Abu Salem crossing comes amid increasing Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Figures published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last month showed 2023 has been a deadly year in the occupied West Bank.

"The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli forces so far in 2023 (172) has surpassed the total number killed in all of 2022 (155), which already saw the highest fatalities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2005," OCHA said.