A yellow balloon with Arabic writing on it landed in the Jewish community of Beit Horon north of Jerusalem on Sunday, and is believed to be an incendiary “terror balloon” like the ones that have been launched from Gaza to start arson fires along the border inside Israel.
Border Police arrived to remove the item for further investigation.
Starting on March 30 as part of the Palestinian “March of Return,” led by Hamas and continuing nearly every Friday since then, Gazans have launched kites carrying incendiary devices into Israeli territory. They soon advanced to less expansive and more prolific flammable balloons.
The damage to Israeli nature, agricultural lands and wildlife has been estimated in the millions of dollars, and has affected nearly 10,000 acres of land in southern Israel.