The Hamas-run Ministry of Interior in Gaza on Sunday morning closed the Gaza side of the Erez crossing to Israel, barring Arab residents’ passage in either direction, Arab media reported.
A spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement that the crossing would remain closed until further notice, to allow Gaza’s security services to undertake “procedures” in response to the assassination of Hamas’ the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades senior military commander Mazen Fuqaha on Friday, which Hamas has blamed on Israel.
The ministry would allow “humanitarian cases” to return home from Israel, but there was no word on similar cases being permitted to enter Israel.
This is a rare move by Hamas, as the Erez crossing is most often closed down by Israel in response to Arab attacks.
Fuqaha was shot four times in the head by gunmen using silencers in front of his home in southwestern Gaza City Friday night. Hamas announced this was the act of collaborators with Israel, but has been unable so far to offer proof.
A native of Tubas in Samaria, Fuqaha served nine years out of a life sentence in Israeli security prison, then set free by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal. He was exiled to the Gaza Strip, and his family members were not allowed to visit him.
In the wake of a series of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in retaliation for rockets shot at civilian centers in Israel, Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya announced that Hamas “is not seeking new military confrontations with the Israeli occupation.”
But al-Hayya warned that Hamas would defend itself should Israel wage war on Gaza.