On Monday morning, the Israel defense army started gradually lifting movement restrictions imposed early last week in areas bordering the Gaza Strip after the cease-fire agreement with Palestinian radicals in the enclave went into effect at 11:30 pm Moscow time on August 7, the army press office reported.
"In accordance with the IDF's assessment of the situation, it was decided to phase out the restrictions imposed earlier. As a first step, all roads that were closed in areas around the Gaza Strip are being opened. Residents of settlements around the Gaza Strip are no longer required to be near bomb shelters. Also, starting 12:00 (coinciding with Moscow time), train traffic between the cities of Sderot and Ashkelon [in southern Israel] will resume," reads the statement.
On August 5, the Israeli army announced Operation Breaking Dawn against the Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza. In three days the radicals fired about 1,100 rockets into Israel, 200 of which, according to the Israeli military, fell in the enclave itself without flying over the border, the Israeli army hit more than a hundred military targets of the Islamic Jihad.
On August 7, Israeli authorities confirmed that an agreement had been reached with Egyptian mediation to impose a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as of 11:30 pm. Israel reserved the right to use force if this agreement was violated. The army press office later indicated that the last strike on radical targets during the campaign was at 11:25 pm.
Israel's state-run Kan Radio notes that shortly after the cease-fire agreement went into effect, rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli population centers near the border with the Strip twice, but the truce has been observed since then. According to the radio station, the Israeli military plans to open the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossing points at the border with the Palestinian enclave during the day on Monday after assessing the situation.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Based on materials from TASS