The Karni Crossing ( ar, معبر كارني or معبر المنطار, he, מעבר קרני) was a

cargo terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

on the Israel-Gaza Strip barrier located in the north-eastern end of the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

and was opened in 1994 to allow Palestinian merchants to export and import goods. This was done as a 'back-to-back' transfer, meaning that Palestinian products meant for export was removed from a Palestinian truck and placed in an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i truck, or vice versa for incoming goods. The Karni Crossing was also used by the residents of Netzarim since the Karni road was the only route to that isolated

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

on which

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

travel was allowed after the 1994 implementation of the Oslo Accords. The crossing has been affected by the Israeli

Blockade of the Gaza Strip The blockade of the Gaza Strip is the ongoing land, air, and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt temporarily in 2005–2006 and permanently from 2007 onwards, following the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. The bloc ...

. At the end of March 2011 Israel permanently closed the Karni Crossing. According to the management, the crossing was named after Joseph Karni, an Israeli who had set up a modern packing warehouse in the Gaza Strip near the present-day cargo terminal shortly after Israel captured the strip in 1967. The Palestinians called it Al-Montar, after the nearby Ali Montar hill.

History

The Karni Crossing was opened in 1994 after the signing of the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993;

to allow Palestinian merchants to export and import goods. The Karni Crossing has been attacked several times by Palestinian militants since the beginning of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel ...

in 2000, in either mortar attacks or frontal infantry assaults, forcing temporary shut-downs for repairs and enhancement of security procedures. Both Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in these attacks. As a crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the Karni Crossing has been used for hostile activities by armed forces from the Palestinian side. Militant Palestinian factions have used the Karni Crossing to smuggle suicide bombers and

explosive belt An explosive belt (also called suicide belt or a suicide vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, ...

s into Israel. The deadliest

suicide attack A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...

to come via Karni was the Port of Ashdod bombing in 2004. In 2006, the Israeli authorities closed the crossing for over 100 days due to terror alerts and rocket fire. By then, the Karni Crossing was managed by the Israel Airports Authority, unlike the Erez Crossing, which is managed by the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

. Between September 2006 and June 2007, the crossing was open daily except for several brief closures due to Palestinian labour strikes. When

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni- Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qas ...

took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Israel closed the terminal. The previous operators, who were affiliated with Fatah, had fled to the West Bank. Hamas has offered to bring Fatah back to Karni or hire a Turkish company to operate the Palestinian side, but Israel has refused to deal with Hamas, the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip. In June 2007, the UNWRA coordinator commended the IDF on moving humanitarian shipments to the secondary Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings, and hoped that Karni could be reopened as part of a longer-term solution. At the end of March 2011, Israel permanently shut the Karni Crossing.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Coord, 31, 28, 29, N, 34, 28, 25, E, display=title, region:IL_type:landmark_source:dewiki Transport infrastructure completed in 1994 Israel–Gaza Strip border crossings Gaza–Israel conflict 1994 establishments in the Palestinian territories 1994 establishments in Israel

History

See also

References

External links