15 Fires From Incendiary Balloons So Far Today

israelnationalnews and CrownHeights.info

Fifteen fires broke out from morning until this hour (Monday) in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip – all of them from incendiary balloons launched into Israel.

Firefighting teams, together with KKL-JNF personnel, have been operating since morning to control the flames and extinguish them.

One of the balloons landed in a kindergarten in the Sdot Negev Regional Council, a few minutes after the end of the school day. There were no casualties and no damage was done.

In the Nir Am reservoir fire broke out and burned the memorial site of Assaf Siboni, who was killed in the helicopter disaster.

Sdot Negev Regional Council head Tamir Idan said “the incendiary balloon that fell today in the kindergarten in the council could have caused disaster had it landed a few minutes earlier.

“Every day there are fires in the vicinity, and there’s no proper response from Israel,” said Idan.

MK Alon Shuster of the Blue and White Party blamed the government for the situation. “This time, terror hit a particularly dear spot: the Asaf Siboni Observation Point, the epicenter of the helicopter disaster that was set up by Shlomit Siboni, his mother, was burned down today by fire terror. I spoke now with her and her daughter, Dafna, and I was encouraged by their determined spirit, which is indeed in pain but they’re already considering the next steps to refurbish the point.

“Of course it doesn’t move the Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Burning of memorial sites for fallen IDF soldiers or agricultural fields – just like the deaths of four civilians in the previous round of fighting – is not a sufficient incentive to change the status quo policy vis-à-vis the Gaza Strip, and the only future he promises to Gaza area residents is ‘what was is what will be’,” Shuster says.