Israeli airstrikes hit militant sites in the Gaza Strip early yesterday and Palestinians responded by sending a series of fire-carrying balloons back across the border for a second straight day — further testing a fragile cease-fire that ended last month’s war between Israel and Hamas.
The latest round of violence was prompted by a parade of Israeli ultranationalists through contested east Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Palestinians saw the march as a provocation and sent balloons into southern Israel, causing several blazes in parched farmland. Israel then carried out the airstrikes — the first such raids since a May 21 cease-fire ended 11 days of fighting — and more balloons followed.
The airstrikes targeted facilities used by Hamas militants for meetings to plan attacks, the army said. There were no reports of injuries.
“The Hamas terror organisation is responsible for all events transpiring in the Gaza Strip, and will bear the consequences for its actions,” the army said. It added that it was prepared for any scenario, “including a resumption of hostilities.”
By yesterday afternoon, masked Palestinians sent a number of balloons, laden with fuses and flaming rags, into Israel.
The unrest has provided the first test of the cease-fire at a time when Egyptian mediators have been working to reach a longer-term agreement. It comes as tensions have risen again in Jerusalem, as they did before the recent war, leading Gaza’s Hamas rulers to fire a barrage of rockets at the holy city on May 10. The fighting claimed more than 250 Palestinian lives and killed 13 people in Israel.
The flare-up also has created a test for Israel’s new government, which took office early this week. The diverse coalition includes several hard-line parties as well as dovish and centrist parties, along with the first Arab faction ever to be part of an Israeli government.
Keeping the delicate coalition intact will be a difficult task for the new Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett.
In Tuesday’s parade, hundreds of Israeli ultranationalists, some chanting “death to Arabs,” paraded in east Jerusalem in a show of force. Hamas called on Palestinians to “resist” the parade, which is meant to celebrate Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinians consider it a provocation.
