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Karni crossing

1994 establishments in Israel1994 establishments in the Palestinian territoriesGaza–Israel conflictIsrael–Gaza Strip border crossingsTransport infrastructure completed in 1994
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The Karni Crossing (Arabic: معبر كارني or معبر المنطار, Hebrew: מעבר קרני) was a cargo terminal on the Israel-Gaza Strip barrier located in the north-eastern end of the Gaza Strip that existed between 1994 and 2011 and used for the export and import of goods from/to the Gaza Strip. This was done as a 'back-to-back' transfer, meaning that Palestinian products meant for export were removed from a Palestinian truck and placed in an Israeli truck, and vice versa for incoming goods. The Karni Crossing was also used by the residents of Netzarim since the Karni road was the only route to that isolated Israeli settlement on which Jewish travel was allowed after the 1994 implementation of the Oslo Accords. The crossing has been affected by the Israeli Blockade of the Gaza Strip. At the end of March 2011 Israel permanently closed the Karni Crossing. Ten years later, in 2022, the last remaining structures of the crossing were demolished by the Israeli military.According to the management, the crossing was named after Joseph Karni, an Israeli who had set up a modern packing warehouse in the Gaza Strip near the present-day cargo terminal shortly after Israel captured the strip in 1967. The Palestinians called it Al-Montar, after the nearby Ali Montar hill.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Karni crossing (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Karni crossing
Sharia Al-Muntar, Gaza East Turkman

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N 31.474722222222 ° E 34.473611111111 °
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Sharia Al-Muntar
888 Gaza, East Turkman
Palestinian Territories
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First Battle of Gaza
First Battle of Gaza

The First Battle of Gaza was fought on 26 March 1917 during the first attempt by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), which was a British Empire military formation, formed on 10 March 1916 under the command of General Archibald Murray from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the Force in Egypt (1914–15), at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in and around the town of Gaza on the Mediterranean coast when infantry and mounted infantry from the Desert Column, a component of the Eastern Force, attacked the town. Late in the afternoon, on the verge of capturing Gaza, the Desert Column was withdrawn due to concerns about the approaching darkness and large Ottoman reinforcements. This British defeat was followed a few weeks later by the even more emphatic defeat of the Eastern Force at the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917. In August 1916, the EEF victory at Romani ended the possibility of land-based attacks on the Suez Canal, first threatened in February 1915 by the Ottoman Raid on the Suez Canal. In December 1916, the newly created Desert Column's victory at the Battle of Magdhaba secured the Mediterranean port of El Arish and the supply route, water pipeline and railway stretching eastwards across the Sinai Peninsula. In January 1917, the victory of the Desert Column at the Battle of Rafa completed the capture of the Sinai Peninsula and brought the EEF within striking distance of Gaza. Two months later, in March 1917, Gaza was attacked by Eastern Force infantry from the 52nd (Lowland) Division reinforced by an infantry brigade. This attack was protected from the threat of Ottoman reinforcements by the Anzac Mounted Division and a screen from the Imperial Mounted Division. The infantry attack from the south and southeast on the Ottoman garrison in and around Gaza was strongly resisted. While the Imperial Mounted Division continued to hold off threatening Ottoman reinforcements, the Anzac Mounted Division attacked Gaza from the north. They succeeded in entering the town from the north, while a joint infantry and mounted infantry attack on Ali Muntar captured the position. However, the lateness of the hour, the determination of the Ottoman defenders, and the threat from the large Ottoman reinforcements approaching from the north and north east resulted in the decision by the Eastern Force to retreat. It has been suggested that this move snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Second Battle of Gaza
Second Battle of Gaza

The Second Battle of Gaza was fought on 17–19 April 1917, following the defeat of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) at the First Battle of Gaza in March, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Gaza was defended by the strongly entrenched Ottoman Army garrison, which had been reinforced after the first battle by substantial forces. They manned the town's defences and a line of strong redoubts which extended eastwards along the road from Gaza to Beersheba. The defenders were attacked by the Eastern Force's three infantry divisions, supported by two mounted divisions, but the strength of the defenders, their entrenchments & supporting artillery decimated the attackers. As a result of the EEF victories at the Battle of Romani, the Battle of Magdhaba, and the Battle of Rafa, fought from August 1916 to January 1917, the EEF had pushed the defeated Ottoman Army eastwards. The EEF reoccupied the Egyptian territory of the Sinai Peninsula and crossed over into the Ottoman Empire territory of southern Palestine. However, the result of the First Battle of Gaza had been as close to a British Empire victory as a defeat could get. In the three weeks between the two battles, the Gaza defences were strongly reinforced against a frontal attack. The strong entrenchments and fortifications proved unassailable during the disastrous frontal attacks, and EEF casualties approached, and in some cases exceeded, 50% for only slight gains.

Third Battle of Gaza

The Third Battle of Gaza was fought on the night of 1–2 November 1917 between British and Ottoman forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I and came after the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Battle of Beersheba had ended the Stalemate in Southern Palestine. The fighting occurred at the beginning of the Southern Palestine Offensive, and, together with attacks on Hareira and Sheria on 6–7 November and the continuing Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe, which had been launched by General Edmund Allenby on 1 November, it eventually broke the Gaza-to-Beersheba line defended by the Yildirim Army Group. Despite having held this line since March 1917, the Ottoman Army was forced to evacuate Gaza and Tel el Khuweilfe during the night of 6–7 November. Only Sheria held out for most of 7 November before it too was captured.Following British defeats at the First and Second battles of Gaza in March and April 1917, Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode commanding the EEF's Eastern Force and Kress von Kressenstein's Ottoman Empire force had each adopted a defensive posture and a stalemate had developed in Southern Palestine. Entrenched defences approximately on the lines held at the end of the second battle were strengthened, and both sides undertook regular mounted reconnaissances into the open eastern flank. In late June, Allenby replaced General Archibald Murray as commander of the EEF, which he quickly reorganised. At about the same time, the Ottoman Fourth Army was also restructured. As the stalemate continued in terrible conditions through the summer, reinforcements began to arrive to replace the large number of casualties suffered by the EEF during the previous fighting for Gaza, while several additional divisions also arrived. The Ottoman defenders were also reinforced at this time, and both sides carried out training while manning the front lines and monitoring the open eastern flank. By mid-October, as the Battle of Passchendaele continued on the Western Front, the last of the British reinforcements arrived as Allenby's preparations to commence a campaign of manoeuvre neared completion. Prior to the Second Battle of Gaza, the town had been developed into a strong modern fortress, with entrenchments, wire entanglements and a glacis on its south and south–eastern edges. A series of field works, mutually supported by artillery, machine guns and rifles, extended from Gaza eastwards to within 4 miles (6.4 km) of Beersheba. Beginning on 27 October, the EEF began a heavy and almost continuous bombardment of Gaza. During this time, the EEF's XXI Corps, holding the Gaza section of the line, had been mostly passive until the night of 1/2 November, when a series of determined night-time assaults were mounted against the Gaza defences. Yet these attacks were only partially successful due to the strength of the garrison. The bombardment of Gaza intensified on 6 November and during the night of 6/7 November successful attacks were launched on several trench systems. On the morning of 7 November, Gaza was found to have been evacuated during the night. The Gaza to Beersheba line subsequently collapsed and the Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies were forced into retreat. Following several battles during the pursuit, the EEF captured Jerusalem on 9 December 1917.

Zeitoun killings
Zeitoun killings

The Zeitoun killings refer to the Israeli military incursion, led by the Givati Brigade unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), into the Zeitoun district of Gaza as part of the three-week 2008-09 Gaza War. In the Arab world, it is referred to as the Zeitoun District Massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حي الزيتون). A total of 48 residents of Zeitoun were killed, most of them women, children, and the elderly; 27 homes, a mosque and a number of farms were destroyed by Israeli forces.The New York Times reported that during the three-week conflict "few neighborhoods suffered more than Zeitoun." A report released by United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs stated that the attack on the Samouni family, who were among the Zeitoun victims, was one of the "gravest incidents" in the conflict. According to Haaretz, the IDF delayed rescue services from reaching some of the casualties for three days of the incident.Zeitoun residents believed that because the area is a natural choke point where the Gaza strip narrows to just four miles wide, Israeli troops turned their neighborhoods into a military base from which to launch their operations. The IDF has refused to discuss individual charges in detail, but an army spokesman speaking on the condition of anonymity with The Los Angeles Times said, "As a matter of policy, we do not target civilians." He added, "These situations are very complex and our soldiers do the best they can."Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an Israeli think tank and advocacy organisation, said that printed flyers from Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its associated websites named five members of the Samouni extended family as being affiliated with the group in some role. Halevi also states that militants from that organisation were operating in the area around the time Israeli tanks began shelling the group of homes belonging to the Samouni extended family.According to the New York Times, members of the Samouni family "did not deny that Hamas militants operated in the area. A family member said there was no active Hamas resistance in the immediate vicinity, although militants were firing rockets at Israel a little more than a mile away." Newsweek reported that the survivors of Zeitoun all insisted that they were simply farmers and that their area had never been used to fire rockets.