The Israeli military launched airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza for the second time this week overnight Thursday into Friday, as the Palestinian terrorist organization continued using incendiary balloons to set fires inside Israel’s borders.
As Breitbart News reported Tuesday, Israel struck terrorist targets earlier in the week in response to a dozen fires set by Palestinian balloons; there were no casualties reported. However, the balloon fired continued, so Israel is responding.
Palestinian terrorists began using the balloons roughly three years ago, after Israel’s Iron Dome missile system proved capable of intercepting Palestinian rockets. The balloons not only burn fields and nature reserves, but threaten lives on both sides, because they can be launched by children, making it harder to distinguish between civilian and combatant.
Smoke billows from a burnt out field near the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nir Am on May 9, 2021, after a fire caused by incendiary balloons launched from the Gaza Strip. – Tensions have been high following consecutive nights of violence around the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, fuelled by a years-long bid by Jewish settlers to take over nearby Palestinian homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Hamas contends that the balloons do not violate the ceasefire that the two sides reached after 11 days of war last month; Israel, meanwhile, intends to deter Hamas from taking advantage of the ceasefire to continue attacking Israeli civilians.
The Times of Israel reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are preparing for a possible resumption of outright war:
At least eight fires were sparked in southern Israel on Thursday, four on Wednesday, and more than two dozen on Tuesday, by balloon-borne incendiary devices launched from the Strip, according to Israeli Fire and Rescue Services.
According to Palestinian media, one Israeli strike Thursday night targeted a Hamas-controlled building in the Gaza city of Beit Lahiya. Additional strikes were reported on a six-story Hamas-run civil administration building in northern Gaza, a Hamas base near Khan Younis, a site near Gaza City, and agricultural fields allegedly housing underground rocket launchers in southern Gaza. There were no immediate reports of Palestinian injuries.
…
“Earlier this evening, the chief of staff held a situational assessment in which he ordered a higher level of preparedness and for the IDF to make preparations for a variety of scenarios including a resumption of fighting in response to continued terrorist activities from the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
The military added that it held Hamas responsible for all violence coming from the Strip and would “continue to destroy the terror group’s capabilities and infrastructure.”
The violence is the first test of Israel’s new government, led by Naftali Bennett, who took office earlier this week.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new e-book, The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it). His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.