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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel struggles to handle latest threat from Gaza: Fire-starting kites |
| 2018-04-18 |
| [IsraelTimes] Blaze breaks out near Kibbutz Be'eri after a container of burning liquid is flown over the border on a kite, in fourth such attack in as many days The Israel Defense Forces has learned how to protect the country from rockets, attack tunnels and stealthy Iranian drones, but since Friday the military has been stymied by a children’s toy: kites. For the past five days, Paleostinians in Gazoo have made attempts to fly kites carrying burning cans of fuel into Israeli territory. The first attempt on Friday failed and the kite landed inside Gazoo, but the rest have sparked fires in southern Israel. On Tuesday, one such kite started a fire in a grassy grove outside Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli community located some seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Gazoo’s Bureij refugee camp. As of Tuesday afternoon, four teams of firefighters were working to bring the blaze under control, a front man for the local fire department said. The Kan news broadcaster reported that the fire had spread over almost 100 dunams (25 acres). This could not be immediately confirmed. Gazooks filmed the kite crossing the border and starting the blaze, in a video shared on social media. The kites seem to be the latest phase in the ongoing tension on the Gazoo border, as Paleostinians have rioted and protested along the security fence almost daily since March 30. As this month also marks the beginning of Israel’s dry season, an IDF spokesperson on Friday said the military was prepared for the possibility that fires might break out and had therefore coordinated with local fire departments and put firefighting planes on standby. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... when asked specifically about the low-tech threat posed by kites carrying incendiary devices, the army offered scant details about its ability to combat the threat. "The IDF is prepared and ready for various scenarios during the riots organized along the Gazoo fence," the army said in a statement. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |