Gazan kites continue to spark multiple fires in South
Erdan: Kite-flyers should be shot
Incendiary kites launched from Gaza continued to ravage land in southern Israel on Tuesday, sparking fires in as many as 10 different locations.
“I expect the IDF to handle these kite-flyers exactly as they would any terrorist, and the IDF’s targeted assassinations must also apply to these kite-flyers,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said.
Among the fire locations was a field opposite the Sapir College in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council. The students carried on with their studies as usual while firefighters extinguished the flames.
Various sites and communities in the Eshkol Regional Council and the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council were hit by the kites, including Kissufim, Nirim, Miflasim, Ein Hashlosha and Nir Am.
Since the start of the fire-kite phenomenon, 265 fires have been reported, in which approximately 697 acres of KKL-JNF forests have burned.
“Our brave firefighters can extinguish the fires, but only the IDF can eliminate those who lit them,” said Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan during a tour of the Kissufim area. “I expect the IDF to carry out targeted assassinations of terrorist kite launchers that endanger people’s lives on a daily basis. They need to know that they will pay for it.”
National firefighters and KKL-JNF staff managed to gain control over most of the fires.
KKL-JNF said Tuesday that it intends to sue Hamas in international legal court for the severe environmental damages it caused to KKL-JNF land in the area surrounding the Gaza border from rockets, mortar shells and incendiary kites launched from the enclave into Israel.
“It is inconceivable that the international community would allow Hamas not to be held accountable and pay for its criminal acts; not only against the citizens of the state of Israel, but also against nature and the environment which have been severely hurt by this criminal environmental terrorism,” said KKL-JNF world chairman Daniel Atar, who toured the affected southern areas along with KKL-JNF management.
“Hamas has proved that they have no humanity – not just toward human beings, but also toward animals and natural resources. We are going on a planting campaign with the children from the towns surrounding Gaza: Hamas burns forests – we plant them. We will prove that our lives here are founded on strength and growth.”
Meanwhile, World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer called on European leaders to take action against Hamas, to condemn its activities and to recognize it as a terrorist organization in every sense of the term. Addressing MK and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter, who was participating in a WJC conference in Prague, Singer said, “We need to stop Hamas once and for all."