06 August 2018•Update: 06 August 2018
By Nour Abu Aisha and Hani al-Shaer
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Israeli warplanes on Monday struck areas near the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, according to eyewitnesses.
Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that the targeted site had been used by Palestinian activists to fly incendiary kites and balloons into Israeli territory.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, no casualties were reported as a result of Monday’s air raids, which were later confirmed by the Israeli army.
In recent weeks, Palestinian activists have been flying flaming kites and balloons over Israeli territory as part of ongoing anti-occupation protests along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.
According to Israeli officials, the improvised aerial weapons have caused a number of fires inside Israel, causing significant material damage but not resulting in any deaths or injuries.
Since the Gaza rallies began on Mar. 30, more than 150 Palestinian protesters have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
