At least three agricultural fields that were nearing harvest were burned to the ground Monday afternoon and evening.
The conflagration took place at Kibbutz Sa’ad, near Nahal Oz and in the Eshkol Regional Council district, as IDF soldiers were contending with tens of thousands of rioters on the Gaza-Israel border.
Nearly 28 acres (100 dunam) of crops were blackened at Kibbutz Sa’ad, despite the efforts of firefighters and members of the kibbutz.
“It’s very painful because these are crops we’ve been waiting for since November,” Haim Landesman told Ynet, “and we were only a few weeks before the harvest.
“Something needs to be done about the fire kites,” he added. “This time they landed in a field but next time it could easily land in a school, and then the tragedy would be greater.”