Erez Crossing
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Erez Crossing מעבר ארז معبر بيت حانون |
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| Coordinates | 31°33′29.52″N 34°32′41″E / 31.5582000°N 34.54472°ECoordinates: 31°33′29.52″N 34°32′41″E / 31.5582000°N 34.54472°E |
| Carries | Pedestrians |
| Crosses | Israeli Gaza Strip barrier |
| Locale |
 Israel Gaza Strip
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| Official name | Erez Crossing מעבר ארז |
| Maintained by |
Israel Defense Forces
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 Erez Crossing
Location of the Erez Crossing at Israel-Gaza Strip border
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The Erez Crossing (Hebrew: מעבר ארז, Arabic: معبر بيت حانون) is a border crossing on the Israel–Gaza barrier. It is located at the northern end of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Israel. The crossing is restricted to Palestinian residents under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and to Egyptian nationals or international aid officials. Israel only permits Palestinian residents to travel via Erez in “exceptional humanitarian cases, exceptionally students and sportsmen traveling abroad, and also merchants.
The modern hangar-style building has an area of about 35,000 m2 (375,000 sq ft) and has a capacity of handling 45,000 people per day. It was completed in 2007 at a cost of $60 million.
The Erez Crossing is part of a complex that formerly included the Erez Industrial Park. The crossing connects Israel's Highway 4 with Gaza's Salah al-Din Road. Until the early 1970s, the rail line which connected Israel and Gaza also passed through Erez Crossing. Nowadays the railway in the Gaza Strip is dismantled and on the Israeli side, Israel Railways' active rail line ends about 4.5 km northeast of the crossing, though in the future it may be re-extended to the crossing to provide cargo service to the Gaza Strip.
Until September 2000, more than 26,000 Palestinian residents were able to travel to and through Israel daily (some 800,000 per month). After the start of the Second Intifada, this number dropped to less than 900 per day. In 2004, there were 43,440 crossings at Erez into Israel monthly on average. After Hamas' takeover of Gaza, the number dropped to 2,175 in 2008. After the Israel–Hamas cease fire in 2014, the number increased to 15,000 per month in 2015.
According to Gisha, there were 15,388 exits of Palestinians from Gaza via the Erez Crossing in January 2016 (the sole crossing for the population of about 1.9 million). Of them, 2896 were patients and their companions, 8183 were merchants, and 4309 were "others".
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Wikipedia