Key border crossing between Gaza, Israel reopened after 'Hamas tunnel' destroyed

A key border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel has reportedly been opened according to the Israeli military after destroying a tunnel built by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The opening of the Kerem Shalom border on Tuesday restores Gaza’s main point of entry of humanitarian aid, one of the few lifelines the Strip has.

On Sunday, Israel destroyed a tunnel that stretched from the Gaza Strip into the country and continuing into Egypt. The tunnel ran underneath the main goods crossing, as well as gas, and fuel pipelines.

Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the tunnel belonged to the Islamist movement Hamas and was intended for attacks as opposed to smuggling.

Military jets struck the part of the tunnel in Gaza and "new tools" destroyed the rest in Israeli territory, in what the Israeli military claimed it likely thwarted an imminent attack on Israelis.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "Destroying the network of offensive tunnels is an essential component in our policy of systematically damaging the strategic abilities of Hamas."

This makes it the third such tunnel destroyed by Israel in the past two months, and comes as tensions boil in the region over the US president Donald Trump’s remarks to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American embassy there.

Unrest has included cross exchanges as rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and Tel Aviv responding with airstrikes. Since Trump’s announcement, seventeen Palestinians have been killed.