Incendiary balloon lands on Israeli road
Photo: Police
Despite Palestinian threats, Friday protests end relatively peacefully
Only several dozen incendiary kites and balloons dispatched from Gaza Strip in what was likely the calmest Friday since Gazans’ launched their weekend fence protests in late March; on Friday evening, an IAF aircraft attacks an unmanned Hamas observation post from where balloons were flown into Israel earlier.
An Israel Air Force aircraft on Friday evening attacked an unmanned Hamas observation post in the northern Gaza Strip from which explosive and incendiary balloons had been dispatched earlier. There were no reports of Palestinian casualties.
Israel’s southern residents and IDF soldiers expected a renewal of violence
on Friday afternoon on the Gaza border, with threats emanating from the Hamas-ruled enclave to send 5,000 incendiary kites and balloons into Israel.
Despite the strike and warning shots fired by the IDF earlier after am incendiary balloon landed near an Israeli border community, the IDF continued its containment policy and avoided attacking balloon or kite operators.
Eid al-Fitr prayer near Israel border (Photo: Reuters)
This was likely the calmest Friday since Gazans’ launched their weekend fence protests in late March. Several dozen Palestinians staged protests along the border throughout the day without any unusual events or casualties on either side of the border.
Palestinians launched several dozen incendiary kites and balloons towards the Gaza vicinity, causing 11 fires, which were all put out.
Incendiary balloon lands on Israeli road (צילום: דוברות המשטרה)
Motorcycle hit by IDF warning shots
The expected round of rioting came despite last Friday marking the conclusion of a series of national Palestinian commemoration days for what they say was a loss of their ancestral homelands.
Despite the expected drop in numbers, however, security forces were expecting a spike in the Gazans’ dispatching of incendiary kites and balloon, assisted by small drones, which have consumed thousands of acres of Israeli farmland over the course of the riots.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh joins worshippers near the border (Photo: AP)
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh joined worshippers near the Gaza border on Friday in marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday that caps the fasting month of Ramadan.
“The protests will continue,” Haniyeh said. “The UN General Assembly condemnation provides that the March of Return and the attempt to break the siege have brought the Palestinian issue to the international community’s attention.”
