Two balloon bombs from Gaza explode over southern Israeli community
Two explosive devices attached to bunches of balloons were launched from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and detonated above a community in the southern Israeli Eshkol region.
The blasts caused neither injury nor damage, the Eshkol Regional Council said in a statement.
“There are no special safety instructions for residents besides showing increased awareness and reporting all suspicious objects,” the council noted.
The incident came after the Israel Air Force carried out airstrikes on several targets in the Gaza Strip Tuesday night, in response to balloons with explosives flown into Israel earlier that day. One of the bombs went off between two buildings in a Gaza border community, without causing injury or damage.
Over the past week there have been several similar exchanges, with the IDF attacking Hamas positions in response to balloons carrying explosives. Israel holds the terror group responsible for all attacks from the Palestinian enclave, as it is the de facto ruler of the territory. Hamas seized control of Gaza from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in 2007.
On Tuesday an Egyptian delegation traveled to the Gaza Strip to urge Hamas leaders to tamp down the attacks. They warned that “creating tensions on the border by launching incendiary balloons will bring the IDF to launch a broad military confrontation in the Strip,” according to a report from the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, which cited a senior Hamas source.
Recent weeks have seen a dramatic increase in the level of violence along the Gaza border, with near-nightly riots and a return of airborne bomb and arson attacks, which had waned in light of a de facto ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas at the end of last year.
Read More: Times of Israel