Israel continued to suffer from the Palestinian arson terrorism emanating from Gaza.
By: World Israel News Staff
Israel’s south continued to contend with the Palestinian airborne arson terrorism on Sunday as firebomb-laden kites and balloons set new fires near communities on the border with Gaza.
Firefighters extinguished blazes near Kibbutz Kissufim, Be’eri and Nir Am.
In the morning, a balloon tied to a suspicious object landed in the yard of a home in the southern city of Sderot. The resident alerted the police, which dispatched a sapper to deal with the potential threat.
Sunday’s fires came a day after incendiary kites launched by Palestinian terrorists from Gaza started 26 blazes in southern Israel.
The IDF in recent days deployed a new detection system to combat the terrorism which has been plaguing the south for some three months, but with apparently limited success.
Israeli farmers in proximity to Gaza have been subjected to hundreds of burning kites. Some 500 blazes have destroyed several hundred acres of wood and farmland and have ruined produce worth millions of shekels.
Palestinian terrorists have launched more than 600 incendiary kites into Israel since the start of the “March of Return” some 12 weeks ago.
Despite the IDF’s best efforts to stop the kites in flight, more than 200 have managed to set fire to Israeli fields and property. More than 430 fires have erupted, and 2,000 acres of wood and farmland have been damaged by the flames.
Israel has deployed drones to cut down the kites, with limited results. Due to the lack of a comprehensive solution to this low-tech, cheap weapon, there have been increasing calls in Israel for the IDF to respond as they would to any other terrorists threatening the country and to shoot the ‘fire kite’ fliers.