18 June 2018•Update: 19 June 2018
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Israeli warplanes early Monday struck nine Hamas positions in the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to Israeli military sources.
Israeli Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said the strikes were in retaliation for the launch by Palestinian activists in Gaza of incendiary kites and balloons into southern Israel.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that Israeli warplanes had pounded three Hamas positions with about a dozen rockets.
No casualties were reported.
On Sunday, an Israeli warplane struck a car in Gaza City -- which was empty at the time of the strike -- that belonged to a Palestinian activist suspected of launching incendiary kites into Israeli territory.
According to the Israeli authorities, incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gaza have caused more than 400 separate fires in or near Jewish settlements in southern Israel, causing roughly 2 million Israeli shekels (approximately $554,000) of damage.
Palestinian activists in eastern Gaza have been flying incendiary kites and balloons into Israeli territory as part of ongoing demonstrations near the Israel-Gaza security fence.
Since the protests began on March 30, at least 128 Palestinian demonstrators have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army gunfire.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes 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 decade-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of basic commodities.
Reporting by Hani al-Shaer:Writing by Mahmoud Barakat
