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Gaza City – Israel launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip at dawn on Wednesday after militants in the Palestinian territories sent incendiary balloons to the south of the country. This is the first clash between the two sides since a major conflict in May in which hundreds were killed.
The strikes were also the first under Israel’s new coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett, who took power on Sunday after ousting former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the strikes came as more than 1,000 ultra-nationalist protesters carrying Israeli flags poured into Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday. Tuesday. With dozens of policemen and international observers urging calm.
Flames emerge after an Israeli airstrike hit an alleged Hamas target in Gaza City, Gaza, June 15, 2021. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli Air Force targeted at least one site east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, which is home to about two million people.
An AFP photographer in Khan Yunis saw the explosions.
The Israeli army said that in response to the “incendiary balloons,” its “fighter planes bombed military compounds belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.”
A small fire burns in a field after Palestinians in Gaza send incendiary balloons across the Gaza-Israel border, near Nieram, southern Israel, June 15, 2021. Amir Cohen/Reuters
It added that “facilities and meeting sites for terrorist activists” in Khan Yunis were targeted. There was no immediate indication of injuries.
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The Israeli army added that it was “prepared for any scenario, including the resumption of hostilities, in the face of the ongoing terrorist operations from the Gaza Strip.”
Local firefighters said incendiary balloons – which usually consist of Molotov cocktail-like canisters attached to helium balloons – caused about 20 fires in southern Israel. Palestinians have resorted to balloon attacks, which rely on winds carrying inaccurate devices across the border, for years.
Gaza authorities said the violence was the first escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants since a ceasefire began in May, ending 11 days of heavy fighting that killed 260 Palestinians, including some fighters. Police and the army said 13 people were killed in Israel, including a soldier, with rockets fired from Gaza.
Fragile ceasefire for Israel and Hamas 2:15 ‘Flag march’ raises tension
In annexed East Jerusalem, more than a thousand people took to the streets in a delayed and controversial rally by nationalist and far-right activists. The United States and the United Nations had called for restraint before the rally, which the new Bennett administration had authorized.
CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata noted that a similar march last month helped ignite the 11-day military conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza. The fragile ceasefire that ended this escalation held for nearly three weeks, but as D’Agata said, tensions remained high, and the IDF warned it was ready to resume fighting if necessary.
A Hamas spokesman said the Palestinians would continue to defend their rights and their holy sites.
With tensions rising, Israeli police deployed in large numbers, blocking roads and firing stun grenades and foam bullets to drive Palestinians off the main route of the march on Tuesday.
Far-right Israelis dance with Israeli flags as they walk near Bab al-Amud during the “Flag March”, June 15, 2021 in Jerusalem, Israel. Amir Levy/Getty Images
Medics said 33 Palestinians were wounded, and police said two officers were wounded and 17 people were arrested.
The demonstration sparked protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and drew criticism and warnings from Israel’s allies.
The so-called flag march commemorates the city’s “reunification” after Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it, a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Tuesday’s demonstration was originally scheduled to take place in early May, but has been called off twice amid police opposition and threats from Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave in Gaza.
Clashes between police officers and Palestinians as they are forced out of the Bab al-Amud area ahead of a far-right flag rally on June 15, 2021 in Jerusalem, Israel. Amir Levy / Getty Images
Crowds of religious youths sang, danced and waved flags at the Bab al-Amud entrance to the Old City, which has been cleared of the usual Palestinian crowds.
Some chanted “Death to the Arabs” before others silenced them.
Early challenge to the new government
The rally comes just two days after the ouster of Netanyahu after 12 consecutive years in power, which was toppled by an ideologically divided coalition that includes, for the first time in Israel’s history, an Arab party.
Bennett is himself a nationalist Jew, but Netanyahu’s allies have accused the new prime minister of betrayal for his alliance with the Arabs and the left.
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On Tuesday, some protesters carried signs that read “Bennett the Liar.”
Yair Lapid, the architect of the new government, tweeted that he believed the march should be allowed, but that “it’s unbelievable how you can raise the Israeli flag and scream, death to Arabs at the same time.”
Mansour Abbas, whose four-seat Ra’am al-Islami party, called Tuesday’s rally a “provocation” that should have been cancelled.
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