Despite agreements, calm, fire balloons plague and occasional rockets southern Israel

Despite the agreements to restore calm between Israel and Gaza, incendiary balloon terrorism from the Gaza Strip shows no signs of abating and the occasional rocket still hits southern Israeli communities.

A rocket fired from Gaza last Thursday directly hit a yeshiva in Sderot, damaging the building but thankfully not hurting anyone as the building was empty at the time. However, if the rocket had hit minutes earlier there would have been mass casualties, as it had been full of people. Thank God for His miraculous protection. A direct hit with casualties would have meant all-out war. The only thing keeping Israel from going into Gaza and dismantling Hamas is that their crude rockets have, until now, only caused a few deaths (a few too many for many Israelis!).

But, dozens of fires were ignited in nearby Israeli communities by the pesky—and extremely dangerous balloons—over the weekend.

Even with the new stages of ceasefire being implemented, the launch of incendiary balloons is not slowing down. In fact, terror groups have discovered a new method of launching these primitive devices by using a slow-burning fuse soaked in explosive liquids and attaching it to an incendiary balloon. According to Ynet, “The balloon drips fireballs as it flies, creating several ignition points from just one device.”

In a meeting held Friday with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, United Nations envoy Nickolay Mladenov was said to have relayed Israel’s hope for quiet along the border.