Israel’s Defense Ministry ordered the Kerem Shalom goods crossing and Erez pedestrian crossing from Gaza to Israel to be reopened on Sunday morning, noting a decrease in the amount and severity of riots along the border since Friday.
The crossings were ordered closed on Wednesday after a powerful rocket launched from Gaza scored a direct hit on a family home in the city of Beersheva, 47 kilometers inside Israel.
The mother of the family was awakened by the Red Alert warning system and quickly go to the home’s bomb shelter with her three young sons, shutting the door just seconds before the rocket ripped through their home, totally destroying the majority of their possessions.
Another missile landed off the coast of Tel Aviv.
The security establishment said the number and intensity of attacks on the Gaza border during the weekly “March of Return” riots was significantly reduced—10,000 people took part, according to army sources—but Israel Defense Forces reported that rioters broke through Israel’s border fence in three locations, and set off explosives and grenades.
“Unlike past weeks, most of the rioters remained at a distance and did not try to reach the fence,” the IDF said. “Hamas acted for restraint on the ground.”
Over the weekend, two groups of Palestinians who sparked arson fires on Israel’s border with Gaza by launching incendiary balloons received warning shots from the IDF.
