Palestinian Authority terrorists are beginning to spread the strategy of incendiary balloon warfare from one region to the next, with the agricultural arson terror beginning to spread from southern Israel to the center of the country.
The Kissufim Forest in the Eshkol Regional Council District was set afire by an incendiary balloon launched from Gaza on Tuesday night.
Teams of firefighters and personnel from Keren Kayemet L’Israel-Jewish National Fund raced to the scene to battle the blaze.
Three incendiary balloons landed during the daylight hours Tuesday in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, including one that was found near a residential home. The bomb squad was summoned to defuse the explosive that was attached to the balloon.
The other two airborne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) landed in open areas of the city in the early-morning hours.
An additional incendiary balloon was found Tuesday in the area of the Modi’in Regional Council district, in central Israel. Police sappers were called to neutralize the device, which became caught in the trees.
Earlier this week, similar explosives borne by incendiary balloons landed in a forest in the northwest Negev, and also in a small community north of Jerusalem.
The Shokeda Forest went up in flames as a result of the arson attack; in Givat Ze’ev, the incendiary balloon was spotted and the attached explosive fuse was neutralized in time.
Barely two weeks ago, incendiary balloons landed in another Jewish community near Jerusalem and in one at the heart of Gush Etzion, also in central Israel.
