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Israel fires on Gazans launching flaming balloons, breaking short period of calm
[IsraelTimes] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",-run health ministry says 2 maimed in strike, the first in the Strip since massive Israeli bombardment on Friday after killing of soldierAn Israeli aircraft fired at a group of Paleostinians launching incendiary balloons into southern Israel from the northern Gazoo Strip, the army said, breaking two days of relative calm along the border. The Hamas-run Gazook health ministry said two people were maimed in the strike. It listed the injuries as light to moderate. An incendiary balloon was discovered earlier in the day in the Eshkol region, though it did not start a fire. As of 8:45 p.m., there had been no fires in southern Israel sparked by airborne arson devices from Gazoo, according to a spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Services southern division. Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel would react harshly to any violence coming from Gazoo. "We hit Hamas very hard over the weekend and ‐ if it proves necessary ‐ we will hit them seven-fold," Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office The  was the first in Gazoo since Israel hit dozens of Hamas targets on Friday, though tanks struck a pair of observation posts Saturday in response to an attempt to breach the border and an incendiary balloon launch.The Israeli bombardment came after a Paleostinian sniper rubbed out an IDF soldier, Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, 20, along the security fence surrounding the coastal enclave ‐ the first Israeli killed in an attack from Gazoo since the 2014 war. Four Paleostinians were killed ‐ three of whom were acknowledged as Hamas fighters. Israel said it has no interest in engaging in another war with Hamas, but said it will no longer tolerate the group’s campaign of flying incendiary devices into Israel. Earlier Sunday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that Israel was prepared to remove the punitive economic measures it put in place earlier this month in response to these "fire kites and balloons," if the Gazoo-ruling Hamas terror group stopped the airborne arson attacks. "Yesterday was one of the calmest days, perhaps, since March 30," Liberman said. "If that situation continues today and tomorrow as it was yesterday, then, on Tuesday, we will revive the regular procedures and also expand the fishing zone to what it was before." The defense minister made his comments at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the only Israeli crossing for commercial goods into and out of the Gazoo Strip, which has been closed to everything but shipments of food, medicine and occasionally fuel since July 9. Liberman stressed that calm also meant an end to months of kites and balloons carrying Molotov cocktails over the border fence from the Paleostinian enclave to burn Israeli farming land. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-07-23 |
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