Terrorists in Gaza have resumed airborne incendiary attacks on Israel.
Even though there has been sporadic rocket fire at Israeli population centers, these were the first firebomb attacks in about half a year.
7 separate fires were ignited in Israel’s southern Eshkol Regional Council that lies adjacent to the Islamist-Hamas controlled Palestinian enclave yesterday. Teams from the National Fire and Rescue Authority and workers from Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund land development NGO succeeded in extinguishing flames that scorched the Kissufim and Be’eri Forests.
This, following the launching of two balloons attached to flammable materials that set fire to an agricultural area of Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
“Unfortunately we are again troubled by arson attacks,” Avigdor Khalfa, owner of the fields that caught fire in the Eshkol Regional Council, told the Ynet news agency, adding that the attacks “absolutely kill our next generation’s future. Today, large areas were set on fire, including a field of pea seeds meant for next year.”
“The damage caused by the balloons is enormous – and is no less harmful than missiles,” he underscored, saying poignantly that, “It hurts to see all the crops burn – it’s like a fire in your heart.”
The rising violence emanating from Gaza comes in the wake of this week’s West Bank terror attack at the Tapuach Junction by a Palestinian gunman that killed Israeli teenager Yehuda Guetta and wounded two others Violent riots erupted in the territory between Palestinians and Israeli security forces amid an intensive manhunt for the suspect Muntasir Shalabi, who has been captured.
There have also been increasing clashes between Jerusalem police and Muslim rioters over Ramadan gatherings outside the Old City, as well as a fierce land dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the capital.
Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif issued a warning that Israel would pay a “high price” if it ‘did not stop attacking residents’ in Sheikh Jarrah.
In a written statement, United Nation’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said he is “deeply concerned by the surge in tensions and violence” between Israel and the Palestinians, and issued a call on “political, religious and community leaders on all sides to stand firmly against violence, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric.”