(Recasts with decision to reopen crossings) JERUSALEM, July 8 (Reuters) - Israel said it would reopen its border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to an Egyptian request, reversing an earlier decision to close them after a Palestinian mortar attack. "In response to a special request by the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Defence Minister Ehud Barak agreed to open the crossings at noon (0900 GMT)," a Defence Ministry statement said. Under a truce brokered by Egypt on June 19, militants in the Gaza Strip are required to halt rocket and mortar fire in return for Israel gradually lifting a blockade of the coastal territory. An Israeli official had announced earlier on Tuesday that all but one of Israel's border crossings with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would be shut because of a mortar bomb attack launched from the area on Monday. Defence official Peter Lerner said he had no immediate detail on the amounts of goods Israel would allow into the Gaza Strip. Sporadic rocket and mortar bomb attacks from the Gaza Strip since the truce began have led to brief closings of the crossings, where Israel tightened restrictions on the passage of people and goods Hamas Islamists seized control of the territory a year ago. (Reporting by Avida Landau, Editing by Dominic Evans)
Israeli soldiers exhume bodies from graves at the cemetery for enemy casualties near an Israeli military base near the northern city of Safed July 7, 2008. Israel and Hezbollah have signed ...
