Arab media reported from Gaza that an Israeli drone attacked a group of terror kite-flyers in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday. The IDF said the aircraft fired a warning rocket at a squad that was preparing balloons for carrying explosives. “The IDF views severely the use of incendiary balloons and incendiary kites and will act to prevent their use,” was the IDF Spokesperson’s statement.
Gaza terror activists declared, according to Ma’an, that the fact that Israel is now firing at kite launching teams shows just how afraid the Zionist enemy is.
The kite terror continued on Saturday, as at least ten fires broke out in the Gaza perimeter, most of them near Be’eri and Kissufim. Two more blazes broke out in the area of Kibbutz Nir Am because of firebombs carried by kites fired from the Gaza Strip. Police was forced to stop traffic on Highway 34 from Sderot to the Yad Mordechai Junction on account of the fires.
Firefighters, security coordinators and farmers from the area gained control over all the fires and no one was injured, but serious damage was caused to agricultural fields and natural groves. On Friday, a record 45 fires erupted around the Gaza perimeter. About 60 firefighters and 20 fire engines were used to extinguish the fires.
Alas, the singular drone attack is far from representing a change in IDF policy, even as entire areas of Israel’s Gaza-envelope civilian settlements are ablaze. At this stage, the IDF does not intend to change its rules of engagement, which dictate that it is not permissible to fire at those who launch fire kite – although, according to Ynet on Saturday, the IDF is at work on modifying the rules to include firing at kite and balloon squads that attach Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to their instruments of terror.
Remember, the IDF does not fight terrorists, it does its darndest to contain terrorists.
With that in mind, the IDF has refrained from attacks on Hamas targets inside and around the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, despite the firing on a military post in the northern Gaza area, and the dozens of grenades and IEDs hurled at at IDF forces on the ground and in the air using kites And balloons. Until a week and a half ago, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s IDF was almost obsessively precise in retaliating for every single rocket shot over the Gaza border fence. Now the IDF refrains from responding, pretending to obey a ceasefire that the other side declared and is actively ignoring.
On Friday, Ma’an reported that Israeli drones reportedly dropped firebombs along the border in the southeastern Gaza Strip. Local residents told Ma’an the drones dropped the firebombs on hundreds of tires that protesters had brought to the area to burn later in the day. Apparently, those firebombs also burned down several tent encampments.
So, win a few, lose a few.