Part of airborne incendiary device found near Sderot daycare center

Police said Sunday that sappers attended an incident close to a daycare center in the southern town of Sderot after a security guard spotted a suspicious object, apparently part of an airborne incendiary device.

There were no reports of injuries.

Police removed the object from the scene and took it for investigation, calling on the public to be extremely careful around any such objects — balloons and kites — as they could contain dangerous explosive or inflammatory material.

The tactic of sending airborne incendiary devices into Israeli territory has been used almost daily by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of weekly border protests there in March.

Gaza protesters have launched hundreds of such incendiary kites and balloons into Israel, sparking fires that have destroyed forests, burned crops and killed livestock. Thousands of acres of land have been burned, causing millions of shekels in damages, according to Israeli officials. Some balloons have carried improvised explosive devices.

In a spate of copycat attacks, suspicious balloons have been discovered on a number of occasions over the past month in Jerusalem, the Givat Ze’ev settlement north of the city, Lod and the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam.

Last December a rocket landed in a kindergarten in Sderot during a Friday evening barrage. Nobody was in the daycare center when the missile struck, but the building was damaged.