Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Sunday ordered the re-opening of the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings with the Gaza Strip. The move comes after an estimated 10,000 Palestinians converged on the border for Friday’s weekly instalment of the so-called “March of Return” protests, although Israeli officials described the ensuing clashes as relatively tame and an indication of Hamas’ intent to reduce tensions in order to give international mediators additional time to forge a long-elusive cease-fire agreement. Israel and Hamas last week were on the brink of war, when a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave demolished a house in the city of Beersheba and the Israeli army responded by striking 20 Hamas terror targets. According to reports, Egyptian and United Nations envoys holding truce talks in Gaza were able to avert a major conflagration by conveying a message to Jerusalem that the Hamas leadership did not sanction the missile attack. For over six months Gazans have been rioting along the frontier and flying incendiary objects into southern Israel, destroying half of the forestry and thousands of acres of farmland in the surrounding area. The Israeli government has warned that unless calm is restored it will launch a military operation against Hamas.
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