The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday condemned Israel's decision to demolish the closed Karni Crossing into Gaza saying it was an "illegal, unilateral move."
Channel 2 Radio reported Monday that huge explosions were heard as the IDF destroyed buildings at the Karni crossing after security officials warned Gaza terror factions planned to use the crossing as a point of entry for launching attacks on Israel.
The Karnei crossing, once the primary commercial nexus for the coastal enclave, was closed in 2007 after the Hamas terror organization seized Gaza from the Fatah-run PA in a bloody putsch.
Hamas and Fatah recently reconciled and announced the Islamic movement and its terror confederates in Gaza would be joining the PLO and forming a unity government with Fatah in Ramallah.
The move led the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to decide such a government would be a death knell for the long-moribund peace process between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
PA officials have refused to come to the negotiating table for two years on the pretext that Israel must stop settlement construction in disputed territories.
However, a previous 10-month construction freeze in Judea and Samaria aimed at satisfying PA demands was not only rebuffed, but met with more preconditions – namely, a release of all terrorists from Israel's prisons and using the pre-1967 lines as a basis for a future PA state.
This was followed by a unilateral bid for statehood by PA officials at the United Nations in September, as well as a bid to join a wide variety of UN organizations as a "member state" despite their application for statehood becoming a dead-letter in the Security Council due to opposition from the United States.
The 1993 Oslo Accords proscribes unilateral moves such as those undertaken by the PA at the United Nations.
Israel has said it is willing to restart peace talks without preconditions from either side at any time.
Ramallah's charge that Israel's demolition of the Karni crossing is an "illegal, unilateral move" comes just one week after the PLO announced its own dedication to pursuing its own unilateral track with even more vigor.
Senior PLO official Abu Yousuf explained in December 2012 that the PA leadership had decided on "a strategy based on continuous efforts along with the international community to secure full recognition and UN full membership, pursuing internal reconciliation, and keeping up the popular resistance."
Continued cooperation and negotiation with Israel was no longer a part of the PA's future course, he added.