Israel fighting kites with air strikes
KITES WITH BURNING RAGS ATTACHED HAVE BECOME A SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE FOR DEFENCELESS PALESTINIANS
Palestinians say protests are a popular outpouring of rage against Israel by people demanding the right to return to homes their families fled or were driven from 70 years ago.
The Israeli occupation military says it struck Gaza nine times in a bid to deter Palestinians from launching incendiary kites and balloons into Israel.
Palestinian protesters have flown kites with burning rags attached to them along the Gaza border with Israel in an attempt to set fields on the other side of the border on fire.
It is seen as a symbolic act of resistance after Israeli snipers have shot dead more than 130 peaceful protesters on the border in the past few months.
Israel’s deadly tactics in confronting the weekly Friday protests have drawn international condemnation who accuse Israel of using “excessive force”.
Palestinians say the protests are a popular outpouring of rage against Israel by people demanding the right to return to homes their families fled or were driven from on Israel’s founding 70 years ago.
Around two million people live in Gaza, most of them the stateless descendants of refugees from what is now Israel.
Blockade
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the strip which has caused an economic crisis and collapse in living standards there over the past decade.
Meanwhile, Israel said on Sunday it arrested more than 20 people and seized explosives when it dismantled a Hamas cell it alleged was preparing “serious attacks” against Israeli targets.
The cell’s members were mainly from Nablus city in the north of the occupied West Bank and it was active for about six months until being dismantled in April, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said in a statement.
“We made arrests and neutralised explosives that were to be used against Israeli targets,” Israeli occupation army officer Guy Rousso told journalists.
“We found a seven-kilogram bomb ready for use in a Palestinian village near Nablus,” added Rousso, who took part in the operation. Israeli occupation forces also discovered bomb-making equipment and “serious attacks” were averted, the Shin Bet statement added.
“The arrests demonstrate once again the will and efforts of Hamas to put in place terrorist infrastructure to commit attacks in Israel,” Shin Bet said.
Hamas controls Gaza and Israel considers the group its number one enemy.
The West Bank is governed by the Palestinian National Authority, led by president Mahmoud Abbas.