IDF aircraft strikes cell launching incendiary balloons
After fires erupted in Moshav Netiv HaAsara, Gvaram nature reserve, Kibbutz Or HaNer, and Kibbutz Sa'ad amid incendiary balloons flown from Gaza, the army attacks terrorists in northern Gaza, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
Meanwhile, the Security Cabinet has convened to discuss the situation in the strip with the attendance of the military brass.
Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is filling in for Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot who is currently in the United States for a work visit.
Speeking in the Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas, saying the IDF is edging closer to a large scale military activity in the Gaza Strip and if the ongoing border violence continues, Israel will strike the terror group with “very powerful blows.”
Netanyahu emphasized that the time has come to resort to “a different kind of activity” to resolve the situation in the strip, adding that “if Hamas has any sense, they will stop the violence immediately.
Speking to Ynet, Head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Gadi Yarkoni, said, "We must retaliate to end this (the kite and balloon terrorism-ed).
"This black thick blanket of smoke covering our skies is unacceptable. I invite defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to spend the Shabbat with us. But he will have to bring his gas mask because it's impossible to walk outside without it," he quipped.
"This is a very serious situation, and I call on the defense minister and the Security Cabinet to take the right decisions," Yarkoni added.
According to the Eshkol Regional Council head, the Gaza border communities' residents have been under "routine emergency conditions," which must immediately stop.
"The Gaza border communities' residents are strong and are prepared for another round (of fighting) to achieve an outcome.
"Fighting is not the end, it's the means after which calm would be achieved. I'm certain that the Hamas leaders, those who give the orders to riot on the Gaza border fence, should be neutralized, as Lieberman said.
"No sovereign country would have let this happen," Yarkoni said in reference to the "March of Return" campaign during which Palestinian rioters gather along the security fence, resorting to violence over the six past months.
"The IDF must have the power to stop it," he concluded.
After months of Hamas-led Gaza border violence, the time has come to deliver “the hardest blow" on the terror group, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet on Sunday.
"Before we go to war in Gaza, we must exhaust all other options, which we made every effort to do … we tried to exhaust every possibility," he explained.
“We have turned every stone, and we have passed the point of no return… We have reached the stage where we must deliver the hardest blow imaginable on Hamas,” Lieberman asserted.
Meanwhile, several fires caused by incendiary balloons erupted during the day throughout the Gaza border communities.
The flammable balloons caused severe damages in Moshav Netiv HaAsara, following which a conflagration also sparked in the Gvaram nature reserve.
An additional fire broke out due to an incendiary balloon near Kibbutz Or HaNer, and an incendiary balloon landed on an electricity cable in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. An IDF aircraft attacked Sunday afternoon a cell of terrorists launching incendiary balloons in the northern Gaza Strip into Israel, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.
Earlier, an incendiary balloon triggered a fire in an avocado plantation in Kibbutz Sa'ad. Firefighting teams managed to gain control over the fire.
Furthermore, during Friday's violent protest along the Gaza border fence, IDF troops identified several terrorists climbing over the security fence on which they placed an object that caused a fire.
Immediately after that, the army spotted three Palestinians approaching an IDF post, prompting the forces to shot them dead according to rules of engagement.
No casualties were reported among the IDF soldiers.
An initial investigation into the incident shows that the terrorists placed a bomb on the fence, which exploded in part. Then, 20 Palestinians crossed the fence, and soldiers responded with open fire, pushing them back into Gaza.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, seven Palestinians were killed during the riots.
On Thursday, The IDF Spokesperson's Unit released footage the engineering unit's search for terrorist tunnels in the Gaza border area, as well as a video showing the demolition of cross-border Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis, area in the central Gaza Strip, which infiltrated 200 meters into Israel.
This is the 15th tunnel the IDF has destroyed since October 2017, and it is a part of a complex network of Hamas attack tunnels. The kilometer-long tunnel, which was divided into several branches, had electricity and was connected to communication networks.
Following the Gaza border clashes, Lieberman warned on Saturday that as long as the violent rioting continues on the Gaza border, there will be no supply of fuel and gas to the strip.
Lieberman's office said that "Israel will not tolerate a situation in which fuel tankers are allowed into Gaza, while violence against IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens is being used."
