‘Fire kites’ from Gaza cause severe damage in Israel

The scorching heat on Saturday exacerbated the fires caused by incendiary kites, launched by Gaza terrorists, that landed in Israel’s southern communities, causing severe damage but no casualties.

By World Israel News Staff

Palestinians in Gaza continued to throw incendiary kites at southern Israel on Saturday, launching fires in at least 15 locations – some close to peoples’ homes.

Temperatures were unusually high – 38 degrees Celsius – helping the fires to spread further. Hundreds of acres of farmland and nature reserves were destroyed.

No one was hurt, but crops were damaged.

A private beekeeper lost 40 hives.

Firefighters prevented a blaze from spreading towards seed storage depots in the Eshkol Regional Council, Ynet reported.

At least three Palestinians were reportedly hurt by an Israeli drone strike on a terrorist cell that was launching the explosive kites, Palestinian media reported. The IDF confirmed the strike, saying it had fired warning shots.

“IAF aircraft fired at a terrorist cell which launched incendiary balloons in southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli Air Force tweeted.

Since the end of March, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, led by the Hamas terror organization, which rules the Strip, have been participating in the socalled March of Return in an attempt to infiltrate Israeli territory, kidnap Israelis and commit mass terror attacks.

Several thousands of acres of fields, forests and grasslands have been torched using incendiary kites, the Palestinian terrorists’ newest tactic.

Close to 100 Palestinians, most of them affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Islamic terror groups, have been killed in the violence.

“The problems [in Gaza] are rooted in the fundamental goal of Hamas to destroy Israel,” which it pursues by staging ostensibly “peaceful protests” that are staffed by people “paid for and pushed by Hamas to try to break into Israel’s defenses, kill as many Israelis as they can, right next to our border, and kidnap our soldiers,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained in a recent meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May in London.

“This is not a non-violent protest; quite the contrary,” said Netanyahu. “We are doing everything we can to both minimize casualties, and at the same time protect Israeli lives.”