Gaza City, December 15 (RHC)-- Israel has closed border crossings into the Gaza Strip as the regime steps up its aerial assaults against the besieged coastal enclave.  The Israeli military said in a statement that “due to the security events and in accordance with security assessments” Kerem Shalom crossing -- the main passage point for goods entering the Gaza Strip, and the Erez pedestrian crossing -- would be shut as of until further notice. 

Shutting the two border crossings effectively cuts off Gaza from the rest of the world by land, save for its small Egyptian border, which is generally closed.  The territory is also under a naval blockade by the Israeli navy.  Meanwhile, the Israeli army said earlier in the day that it had targeted three facilities belonging to Palestinian resistance movement in the southern Gaza Strip before dawn. 

The Gaza Strip, home to 1.8 million, has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty. 

The development comes amid simmering tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories after US President Donald Trump announced on December 6 that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s “capital” and tasked the State Department with making preparations for the relocation of Washington’s embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Palestinian city.