Explosive soccer ball becomes latest Gazan terror tool

Parents have been forced to teach their children not to be lured by the sight of what appears to be a delivery of balloons or sometimes kites flying above.

By World Israel News Staff 

The cross-border attacks from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel through the use of incendiary balloons continued Thursday, with an airborne booby-trapped soccer ball attached to a colorful display of balloons dispatched from the coastal enclave into the western Negev region.

“Hamas war crime in the Western Negev this morning,” posted Adele Raemer on social media with a photo attached of the makeshift weapon after it landed in a field. Raemer is a resident of Kibbutz Nirim located near the Gazan border.

She noted that it was not found in Nirim’s fields, but rather in those of another community in the western Negev. The posts were on a page called: “Life on the border with Gaza – things people may not know (but should).”

There has been a resurgence lately in such attacks after a lull. Analysts are not sure as to why it is happening again now after a massive number of such incidents in recent years.

Parents have been forced to teach their children not to be lured by the sight of what appears to be a delivery of balloons or sometimes kites flying above.

Fields have caught fire causing serious economic damage to Israeli farmers.

As in the case of rocket attacks, the Hamas terror organization, which rules the Gaza Strip, often argues that its people are not behind the balloon assaults. However, Israel has maintained a policy by which it states that Hamas, as the ruling power, is responsible for all violence originating from its territory.

In December, Israel unveiled a system called “Light Blade” to shoot down incendiary balloons and kites, as well as drones launched from Gaza.

One such drone reportedly landed in the Negev on Thursday. Another report spoke of “a cluster of balloons to which a suspicious object was attached” found on a street in the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod.