SAID KHATIB / AFP via Getty
Gaza City Israel attacks targets of the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and stopped fuel supplies to the enclave Thursday in the latest revenge against firebombs hung from balloons released from Palestinian territory.
Israeli war plans and tanks struck overnight in the fourth military attack last week, leaving no reports of casualties on Thursday, but one unexploded ordnance left in a UN-run school compound in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza.
A Palestinian security official in Gaza said “an unexploded missile fired by an Israeli plane” had an impact on the school grounds and that “exploitation teams are working to disarm it.”
Adnan Abu Hasna, spokesman for UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine, also told AFP that the missile landed at one of its schools, where children had just returned on Sunday after a five-month suspension due to the COVID 19-pandemic.
“We are closing the school and awaiting an investigation to determine the facts and extent of damage,” he said.
An Israeli army spokesman told AFP that the army was investigating the claim.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense said the fuel sanctions came “in light of the ongoing launch of incendiary balloons from the Strip into the territory of the State of Israel and the undermining of security stability.”
MOHAMMED ABED / AFP / Getty
The latest round of hostilities has shown firebombs attached to balloons floating in Israel, setting up agricultural fields and burning down shelters. Sometimes kites are used in apparent attacks.
Israeli fire services in the south of the country reported 60 fires caused by balloons on Tuesday, and 24 on Wednesday, without taking any casualties.
Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
In response, Israel closed its cargo trade with Gaza and also reduced the territory’s permitted coastal fishing zone.
Hamas on Thursday condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its sanctions as “dangerous and aggressive behavior”, warning in a statement of “consequences” that the Jewish state will bear.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008.
Despite a ceasefire last year supported by the UN, Egypt and Qatar, both sides were collide sporadically with rockets, mortar fire or incendiary balloons.
The Gaza Strip has a population of two million, more than half of whom live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Palestinian analysts say fire from Gaza is often intended to pressure Israel to give the green light for the transfer of Qatari financial aid to the Strip.
On Monday, Hamas fired several rockets into the sea as a warning “message” to Israel, a source close to the Islamist movement told AFP.
While Israel’s Iron Dome defense system was able to escape projectiles fired from Gaza, balloons and kites rigged with explosives proved another challenge.
The Israeli army said it was testing a “new laser anti-balloon system.”
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