Israel announces Gaza sanctions after attacks

JERUSALEM — Israel imposed sanctions on the Gaza Strip and its dominant Hamas Islamists on Monday in retaliation for attacks by Palestinians using burning kites and helium balloons carrying blazing rags.

People taking part in more than three months of protests at the Gaza border have started scores of fires by sending the balloons and kites into Israel, vexing its advanced military which is used to dealing with more conventional weapons.

With southern residents and his far-right coalition partners calling for an end to the blazes, even if that required killing the kite- and balloon-fliers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin announced the closure of Gaza’s main commercial border terminal.

Israel also cut the area fishing boats are allowed to operate off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast and blacklisted what it described as a pro-Hamas TV channel.

“We will crack down immediately on the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu told his parliamentary faction, to applause from lawmakers.

Wildfires have razed 7,000 acres of forests and farmland, Israel says.

The kites and balloons are the most effective weapon in the so-called “Great March of Return” protests that began on March 30 and which have met an often lethal Israeli army response.

Gaza medics say 136 Palestinians have been shot dead.

Organisers say the Gaza demonstrations aim to press demands such as for a right to lands lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its foundation and for an Israeli-Egyptian blockade to ease.

Israel deems the protests a bid by Hamas to deflect scrutiny from Gaza’s governance problems and provide cover for armed border attacks.

Hamas decried Monday’s measures as “a new Israeli crime against humanity”.

“Hamas urges the international community to immediately intervene,” said Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Hamas, which is deemed a terrorist group by Israel and the West.

The shuttered Kerem Shalom crossing is Gaza’s main conduit for trade – albeit under years of Israeli restrictions. Israel said some humanitarian goods would still be allowed through the terminal. — REUTERS