A year has passed since the start of weekly protests along the enclave’s border with Israel, dubbed “the March of Return.” It will be marked tomorrow – with organizers calling for a “million-strong” anniversary-march against the Jewish State. While organizers insist that the protests are of a “peaceful nature,” despite open coverage of the violent riots, they do not hide their ultimate goal of annihilating the Jewish state that will allow them to return to lands they claim to have lost during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. According to Qawthar, a Gazan-Palestinian protester,”Unfortunately, until now we haven’t achieved anything, on the contrary. We hope to make gains and we will continue for a year, two years, three years and forever until we achieve our goals and until we get all our demands.”
It is important to note that while most of the population of Gaza does not dare to openly voice their objections to the Hamas-backed protests, Palestinian farmers on the Gazan side of the border are having a hard time concealing their frustration, due to the fact that the so-called “peaceful protesters” time-and-again destroy their crops. Gazan-Palestinian Farmer Naser Abu Daff said “The protesters during the march of return have been coming here for a year now. They come and destroy our trees and vegetables and leaves. And the (tear) gas fired by the Jews (Israeli forces) make us go back home dizzy and not feeling well.”
Meanwhile, with a record-year of rainfall across Israel, most of the burnt fields have once again bloomed, deeming the Palestinian use of incendiary kites and balloons ineffective. Nevertheless, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Brigade is not sitting idly by. According to the Brigade’s Southern District Commander, preparations are being made for when the fields are once again dry, which inevitably will bring about another plague of the heinous phenomenon. According to Shmulik Friedman, Southern District Commander, Israeli Fire and Rescue Services: “Our work assumption is that this terror will start all over again. In the minute that all this green that we see all around us become yellow and brown, and then the Hamas and the other organizations in the Gaza Strip will launch their balloons and the kites again and we are making a very big drill here to be ready to every development that can happen.”
The main victims of what is referred to in Israel as the “terror of kites and balloons” are Israeli farmers, whose fields are situated along the Gaza Strip. According to one of the farmers, this year he plans to harvest his crops before his fields dry-out. He explained that the costs are too much to bear. That is why, instead of using the yields for the purpose of feeding humans, the harvest will be used as food live stock. Southern-Israeli Farmer Ofer Lieberman was quoted saying: “As you see behind me there is a wheat field. Now it’s green for our luck, because if it was dry the Palestinians (would) probably burn it and now we are going to harvest it green as food for cows instead of food for people. In this time (for food for people) we have to wait until it dries so we prefer to cut it like this and, you know, to cut the problem.”
In efforts to thwart the root of this kind of terror, Israel is currently building a concrete wall along its border with the Gaza Strip, and has implemented technological measures that aim at downing the balloons before they cross into the Jewish state. Thus far, however, these measures have not proven successful, as Palestinian Islamists continue to launch clusters of balloons attached to explosive devices, including mines and grenades, with the aim of randomly targeting Israeli civilians.