16 July 2018•Update: 17 July 2018
By Said Amouri
JERUSALEM
Incendiary kites and balloons -- launched by Palestinian activists in the Gaza Strip -- caused several more fires inside Israeli territory on Monday, according to reports in the Israeli media.
Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that at least seven more fires had broken out inside Israeli territory -- including one near Ashkelon and another near Karmia -- as a result of the improvised aerial weapons.
On Sunday, an Israeli warplane targeted a group of Palestinian activists launching incendiary kites and balloons near the Gaza-Israel border fence.
According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent based in the area, the attack -- which apparently failed to cause any casualties -- occurred east of Gaza’s city of Deir al-Balah.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that the strike had targeted a team of Hamas fighters launching “arson balloons” into Israeli territory.
In recent weeks, Palestinian activists in Gaza have been flying incendiary kites and balloons into Israeli territory as part of ongoing rallies along the Gaza-Israel fence that began on Mar. 30.
Since the rallies began, more than 130 Palestinians have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal territory’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
