Regional Cooperation Minister Tzahi Hanegbi stated Sunday that the closure of the Erez Crossing was meant to serve as a warning to Hamas to cease all violence directed at Israel.
According to Hanegbi, Hamas suffered a series of serious blows over the last few months of violence, including the loss of 180 terrorists.
"This is really a yellow card that the security establishment issued due to the fact that at the end of the week, we again saw improvised bombs, Molotov Cocktails and all the other phenomena that we don’t want to see next to the border," Hanegbi said in an interview with YNET. "It is not for no reason that they stopped launching incendiary balloons and it is not for no reason that they stopped shooting at the border."
He said that Hamas has been "recalculating" the violence it has used in recent months.
“We have seen in the last week a dramatic decrease in the scale of the attacks. We never promised anyone anything. We are dealing with terror. We are trying to strike it while on the brink of war, without it escalating into another unnecessary round of conflict.
"It's not enough, but if that's the direction they're going, we hope it'll become more prominent," he added.
Israel closed the Erez crossing Sunday morning to all but medical and humanitarian cases in response to the latest violent riots along the Gaza border on Friday.
On Wednesday, the IDF announced that Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman had decided to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza after it had been closed for several weeks due to the ongoing balloon and kite terrorism.
Liberman has conditioned the opening of the crossing on the calm from Gaza continuing.