IDF said to fire at group launching incendiary devices from Gaza

An Israeli drone shot at a group of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday as they prepared to launch incendiary kites into southern Israel, Palestinian reports said.

An IDF spokeswoman said that the military does not confirm “foreign reports.”

The reports said that the group of Palestinians preparing to launch the incendiary kites was operating east of the Jabaliya refugee camp. They also said that there were no injuries.

Such kites, along with incendiary balloons, have wreaked havoc in the Israeli communities surrounding Gaza since the phenomenon began several months ago, sparking fires that have scorched thousands of acres of farmlands and countryside.

The reports of the Israeli strike on the kite launchers came as Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced the partial lifting of restrictions applied over the past two weeks on the movement of goods at the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Liberman has suggested that the full lifting of the new restrictions requires that Palestinians involved in violence in the border region between Israel and Gaza halt their activities, including kite launches and throwing rocks or Molotov cocktails at soldiers.