An Israeli army drone struck a Palestinian cell launching incendiary balloons from the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon
.
Earlier in the day, two flaming balloons landed in schoolyards in southern Israel. The first, a condom with an arson device attached to it, landed in the yard of an empty elementary school in the Eshkol Regional Council and was neutralized by local security forces.
A second one landed in the yard of a kindergarten in a community in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. Although the schoolyard was full of students at the time there were no injuries and the device was also safely neutralized.
According to local reports in Gaza, two youth were injured in the IDF strike near the city of Jabalya.
.
Earlier in the day, two flaming balloons landed in schoolyards in southern Israel. The first, a condom with an arson device attached to it, landed in the yard of an empty elementary school in the Eshkol Regional Council and was neutralized by local security forces.
A second one landed in the yard of a kindergarten in a community in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. Although the schoolyard was full of students at the time there were no injuries and the device was also safely neutralized.
According to local reports in Gaza, two youth were injured in the IDF strike near the city of Jabalya.
Tensions have risen significantly following a flare-up of violence over the weekend when Hamas launched 200 mortars and rockets into southern Israel and Israel retaliated by striking over 40 Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip.
For a second day in a row, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Israel and held a situational assessment at the IDF’s Gaza Division with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat, along with other senior officials.
“We’re in a campaign, there is an exchange of blows, and I can tell you the IDF is prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said afterwards. “I was very impressed by what I saw here and I know that, like me, all Israeli citizens believe in the IDF and give it backing ahead of any possible development.”
For a second day in a row, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited southern Israel and held a situational assessment at the IDF’s Gaza Division with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat, along with other senior officials.
“We’re in a campaign, there is an exchange of blows, and I can tell you the IDF is prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said afterwards. “I was very impressed by what I saw here and I know that, like me, all Israeli citizens believe in the IDF and give it backing ahead of any possible development.”
Liberman, who also visited the 401st Division drill in the South of the country stated that “the IDF is ready and prepared for any mission that we give it.”
In an apparent threat to the Hamas terror group, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday said during a visit to a military exercise in southern Israel simulating warfare in the Gaza Strip that the Israeli military was prepared to “defeat any enemy.”
“Should we have to go to war, we will be able to defeat any enemy. The Israel Defense Forces knows what to do, how to do it and when to do it,” the defense minister said.
The defense minister’s comments came amid a period of heightened tensions, with many in Israel and in Gaza warning that another war in the Palestinian enclave was imminent in light of increased violence along the border.
Recent months have seen daily arson attacks from Gaza with incendiary kites and balloons that have burned thousands of acres of Israeli land; regular riots and clashes along the border, which have resulted in over 130 Palestinians killed by IDF gunfire; and occasional outbursts of mortar and rocket fire by Gaza terrorist groups, which have prompted dozens of Israeli retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas positions.
Following a significant flareup over the weekend and continued airborne arson attacks, Israel severely limited the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and has threatened further action if the stream of kites and balloons does not stop.
On Sunday, the IDF’s 162nd Armored Division launched an exercise simulating a war in the Gaza Strip, including the capture of Gaza City, which the military said was planned in advance and was not related to the weekend’s exchange of fire between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Strip, in which some 200 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel and the IDF carried out dozens of strikes inside the Palestinian enclave.
No comments:
Post a Comment