Kerem Shalom crossing…an outlet between Gaza and Israel named after a kibbutz | Encyclopedia

Kerem Shalom crossing, or “Kerem Shalom” as the Israelis call it, is a small commercial crossing located at the triple border point between the Gaza Strip, Egypt, and the occupied Palestinian territories. It is about 4 kilometers from Rafah, and its management is subject to joint coordination between Egypt and Israel.

The crossing began operating for the first time in 2005, and was not originally intended for transporting goods to and from Gaza, as its capacity can only accommodate a limited number of trucks per day. However, the closure of the Al-Mintar crossing in the north in 2011 made Kerem Shalom almost the only commercial crossing into Gaza.

Under the siege, the Israeli occupation imposes complex procedures for crossing to and from Gaza, and Palestinians complain of blackmail and insults to which they are exposed during passage. Israel also uses the crossing as a pressure card on the Palestinians through repeated closures and limited daily working hours.

the site

The Kerem Shalom crossing is located in the southeastern part of the Gaza Strip, specifically at the triple border point between the Strip, Egypt, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Near the crossing is the kibbutz (settlement/agricultural community) “Kerem Shalom”, which was founded in 1967, and from there the crossing took the name given to it by the Israelis (Kerem Shalom).

The first operation of the crossing was by the Israeli occupation in 2005 to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip. Later, Israel closed the commercial crossings with the Gaza Strip, with the exception of the Kerem Shalom crossing, which was not originally prepared to be an exclusive crossing for transporting goods to and from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli-Egyptian management

The Kerem Shalom crossing is under the control of the Israeli occupation authorities, and operates in coordination with Egypt, and the commercial movement through it is supervised by the “Presidential Committee for the Entry of Goods” of the Palestinian National Authority.

With the almost total closure of most of the crossings linking the Gaza Strip to the occupied Palestinian territories – including the crossings designated for individuals and vehicles – and then the pressure on Egypt to continue closing the Rafah crossing and the Salah al-Din Gate, Israel makes Kerem Shalom the only outlet for the Gaza Strip to the outside world.

A lifeline

The Kerem Shalom crossing has become the lifeline of Gaza, and about 57.5% of commercial traffic depends on it, especially after the closure of the Al-Mantar crossing in 2011. Through it, trucks carrying basic products, raw materials for industry, medical equipment, food products, livestock, fruits, fuel, building materials, etc. pass through it.

Farmers, factory owners, and merchants in Gaza – who employ thousands of workers in the Strip – rely on it to market their goods to the West Bank, Israel, and the rest of the world.

This crossing is also sometimes used to cross foreign aid, and some Palestinians pass through it when they are unable to use the Rafah and Beit Hanoun crossings located in the northern Gaza Strip.

Limited energy

The capacity of the Kerem Shalom crossing is described as limited, as the appropriate infrastructure for active commercial movement is not available. It was originally not intended to be an exclusive crossing for transporting goods to and from Gaza.

In normal cases, there is no capacity for more than 400 trucks to cross daily, compared to 1,000 trucks accommodated at the Al-Mintar crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, which was closed in 2011.

Because the Kerem Shalom crossing is located in an inappropriate area, the costs of transporting goods through it increase the burden on the trade and industry centers in Gaza, due to the long distance between it and the sea ports, oil refineries, and industrial centers in Israel, as well as from the commercial crossings in the West Bank.

While the Al-Mantar crossing is only 5 kilometers away from the center of Gaza City, which has the highest population density in the Strip, and where most of the factories and commercial stores are located, the Kerem Shalom crossing is about 40 kilometers away from it.

Some estimates indicate that the cost of transporting goods through the Kerem Shalom crossing increased by more than 50% compared to the cost of transporting through the Al-Mantar crossing.

Blackmail and complications

After Israel tightened the siege on Gaza starting in 2007 and closed most of the crossings, including the Rafah crossing and the Salah al-Din Gate with Egypt, it used the Kerem Shalom crossing as a card to blackmail and pressure the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians passing through the crossing, including patients, are subjected to complex procedures, humiliation, humiliation and blackmail by the Israeli security and intelligence services.

The limited working hours and frequent closures also exacerbate the economic conditions in the Strip, in addition to the complex conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities, which hinders the import of basic materials into Gaza and stifles exports from it.

In furtherance of its arbitrary measures, Israel imposes the unloading of containers coming to and from Gaza at the Kerem Shalom crossing and then reloading the goods onto them, despite the Dutch government’s donation of a device that enables the cargo to be examined with X-rays without the need to unload it.

Because the crossing lacks fuel tanks, bringing this vital material into Gaza requires the presence of an Israeli truck and a Palestinian truck at the same time, which causes a lot of time to be wasted in coordinating the process, in addition to the absence of accurate measurement of the amount of fuel, which results in losses for Palestinian merchants.

Complete closure

After the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Palestinian resistance on the settlements surrounding Gaza on October 7, 2023, and coinciding with the intensification of air strikes, Israel tightened its siege on Gaza by completely closing the crossing.

The closure continued until December 17, 2023, the date on which aid began to enter in coordination with the United Nations. The crossing was later reopened to bring in aid and fuel to relieve the displaced in the Gaza Strip, but the war conditions and increasing complications made the quantities coming through it smaller.

Following the Palestinian resistance’s bombing of Israeli army crowds at a military site near the Kerem Shalom crossing on May 5, 2024, during its preparations for a ground attack on Rafah, Israel claimed that the crossing had been bombed and an information ban was imposed on the Israeli media regarding the site of the bombing, and it was decided to close the crossing again.

As for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), it explained that the bombing targeted a military site near the crossing. Palestinian bloggers also reviewed maps of the two sites, which are two kilometers apart.