GAZA CITY - Israel shut down border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after Palestinian rocket attacks tested a fragile truce between the Jewish state and the besieged territory's Hamas rulers. "We are keeping the Karni, Sufa and Nahal Oz crossings closed for the time-being following the firing of rockets in flagrant violation of the truce deal," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told AFP.However, he said that while the goods terminals were closed, the Erez passenger crossing -- used by diplomats, journalists, and sick Gazans requiring medical care in Israel or abroad -- remained open.
"Any fire from the Gaza Strip is a gross violation of the understanding reached with Egypt," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP, adding that Hamas bore responsibility for any attack from Gaza. He said the attacks violated "two cardinal points of the understandings reached through Egypt, namely that the truce applies only to the Gaza Strip and not to the West Bank and that it concerns all armed groups."