Israel Strikes Gaza After Incendiary Balloon Launch
Despite May's ceasefire, Israel carried out similar air strikes on the Gaza Strip last month after Palestinian militants sent incendiary balloons into the south of the country.
Israel hit Islamist militant sites in Gaza with air strikes on Friday in retaliation for incendiary balloon launches from the Palestinian enclave, in the latest unrest since a ceasefire ended May’s conflict.
Security sources with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Israeli-blockaded Gaza, said the strikes hit training sites. There were no injuries reported.
A statement from Israel’s army said: “In response to the arson balloons fired towards Israeli territory today, (military) fighter jets struck… a weapons manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terror organization.”
On Thursday, Israel’s fire service said that incendiary balloon launches from Gaza had sparked four minor fires in the southern Eshkol region, on the Gaza border.
The blazes were “small and not dangerous” and were quickly brought under control, a statement from the fire service said.
“A fire investigator… determined that all the fires were caused by incendiary balloons (from Gaza),” the statement said.
Eleven days of deadly fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas Islamist rulers, as well as other Palestinian armed groups based in the enclave, ended on May 21 with a ceasefire declaration.
