Israel closes Gaza crossing following rocket attacks

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JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel closed the border crossing with Gaza after three rockets were fired at southern Israel from the coastal strip.

With the shutdown on Monday, goods were not allowed to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

One of three rockets fired from Gaza struck southern Israel on Sunday night as the national ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah, was taking place at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The rocket also struck just hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel to push the reopening of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Two other rockets reportedly missed their targets and landed in Gaza. 

Southern Israel suffered three days of rocket attacks from Gaza last week. The area has suffered a handful of rocket attacks from Gaza since an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement following Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense, which ended in early December.

On Sunday, Israeli troops detained a Palestinian teen near Nablus who was carrying several firebombs and two more sophisticated explosive devices.
 

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