The Israeli army has announced that all Gaza crossings will be closed to traffic and incoming goods for four days as the Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr.

The army announced the closure on Thursday, the Israeli new year as the reason.

The Palestinians say that the closure means no goods or aid would enter Gaza for four days.

The announcement comes as Israeli warplanes bombed several locations inside the Gaza Strip on the eve of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Witnesses say they have also spotted Israeli tanks along the Gaza border but there is no further detail available, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Israeli officials at the Gaza border crossings said that the terminals would remain closed for four full days, while on Monday they will be opened only partially in the morning.

They claim that sufficient fuel had been transferred into Gaza to cover the needs of the power plant until the end of the holidays.

Israel placed Gaza under the all-out siege in mid-June 2007, claiming it was preventing alleged security hazards posed by the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, which had won democratic elections a year earlier.

The blockade has ever since deprived Gaza’s 1.5 million residents of food, fuel and other necessities.

The siege remains in order while the coastal sliver is far from recovering from the full-fledged Israeli war at the turn of 2009, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and inflicted a damage of more than USD1.6 billion on its economy.

(Press TV)