Hundreds of people arrived Saturday evening at the Azrieli junction in Tel Aviv to protest the tension in the south and the incendiary balloon terror from the Gaza Strip. The Demonstrators blocked the junction, carrying signs that read: “There’s a ceasefire and the south is still on fire,” “I have no other country, even if my land is burning,” and “Israel is burning, we demand security.”
Over the course of Shabbat, Israeli residents living near the Gaza border had to deal with five fires that broke out as a result of incendiary balloons and kites, despite the supposed ceasefire.
During the demonstration in Tel Aviv, protesters flew a balloon that was trailed by a burning flare, and shouted, “We are not cannon fodder,” “Israel, wake up, we don’t want any more fires,” and “We Don’t want headlines, the ground is burning.”
They triggered a megaphone siren and lay down on the road, covering their faces. Their protest was accompanies by many car horns of drivers stuck on the highway.
Earlier on Shabbat, the largest ever fire kite launched from the southern Gaza Strip landed near Kibbutz Sufa and hit electricity lines. Electric company workers removed it from the high power line but warned that the kite caused temporary damage to the electricity supply in the area.
The IDF Spokesperson confirmed preliminary Arab reports that an IAF warplane attacked the area near a kite-flying squad in the northern Gaza Strip.
At the rally in Tel Aviv, Odelia Ben Zakari, a resident of Kfar Aza, told Channel 2 News: “I feel like a third-class citizen.”
“We are tired of not being counted by our government which is not managing this conflict, but instead are being dragged by Hamas decisions,” she said, adding, “Our feeling is that a terrorist organization is running things.”
Sharon Calderon of Kibbutz Sufa said: “We came to express our fury at the helplessness of the Israeli government that’s doing nothing to stop the war in the Gaza vicinity.”
Referring to the rally that was being held a few blocks away at Rabin Square, Calderon said: “It’s sad that the nation’s eyes are focused on the demonstration against the Nationality Law and not on the residents of the south.”