Kerem Shalom
Encyclopedia
Kerem Shalom is a kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

 in the Eshkol Regional Council
Eshkol Regional Council
The Eshcol Regional Council is a regional council in the north-western Negev, in Israel's Southern District. The regional council's territory lies midway between Ashkelon and Beersheba, bounded on the west by the Gaza Strip while the eastern border abuts the territory of the Bnei Shimon Regional...

 and a border crossing near the meeting of the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

-Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

-Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 borders.

Kibbutz

The kibbutz was founded in 1966 adjacent to the triborder area by members of Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair is a Socialist–Zionist youth movement founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary, and was also the name of the group's political party in the Yishuv in the pre-1948 British Mandate of Palestine...

. Its name includes the word shalom
Shalom
Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning peace, completeness, and welfare and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye...

since the members believed that the location would play a role in establishing peace and ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. The kibbutz came apart in 1996, but was re-established in 2001.

In March 2006, a deadly Avian influenza virus was identified in turkey
Turkey (bird)
A turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species...

 coops in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom.

Border crossing

Since 20 March 2006, the Kerem Shalom border crossing has been used to bring cargo from Egypt into Gaza. It has been used for the delivery of humanitarian supplies from Egypt. Pallets arriving on trucks from Egypt are offloaded in Kerem Shalom, and Palestinian trucks carry the pallets in the Gaza Strip. The turnaround time for the transfer is about 45 minutes, which allows between 15 and 50 truckloads daily.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is managed by the Israel Airports Authority
Israel Airports Authority
The Israel Airports Authority was founded in 1977 as a public corporation mandated by the Israel Airports Authority Law. The authority is responsible for the management of Israel's major civil airports and land-to-land border terminals between Israel and its neighbours...

. European monitors from the European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah
European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah
The European Union Border Assistance Mission Rafah is, after the European Union Police Mission for the Gaza Strip , the EU's second Civilian Crisis Management Mission in the Gaza Strip. It is situated at the Rafah Border Crossing on the Palestinian-Egyptian border...

 use the Kerem Shalom crossing to get to the Rafah Border Crossing. Therefore, when Kerem Shalom is closed, the Rafah crossing also closes.

The EUBAM heads a Liaison Office at Kerem Shalom which receives real-time video and data feeds of the activities at the Rafah crossing. The Liaison Office meets regularly to review implementation of the Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing, to resolve any dispute pertaining to the agreement, and to perform other tasks specified therein. The Liaison Office is manned by liaison officers from EUBAM, the Palestinian Authority, and the Government of Israel.

Attack and abducted soldier

On 25 June 2006 Corporal Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit is an Israeli – French citizen and Israel Defense Forces soldier. On 25 June 2006, he was captured inside Israel by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid via underground tunnels near the border with Gaza. The Hamas militants held him for over five years, until he was released on...

 was abducted by Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...

 militants near Kerem Shalom after the attackers infiltrated the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel via a tunnel. Two Israeli Defense Force soldiers were killed and three others wounded, in addition to Shalit. In response and with the mission of rescuing Shalit, IDF entered Gaza Strip as part of Operation Summer Rains on 28 June.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK