Despite the barrage of flaming kites, balloons and inflated condoms floating over from Gaza and setting fires in Israeli fields, and another salvo of rockets fired by Hamas on Tuesday night, Israel is trying to dampen the escalation in Gaza.
The fires have consumed over 25 square kilometres of fields and nature parks, but the Israeli intelligence assessment is they result from Hamas’s lack of options, now that the Palestinian protests on the border have petered out and failed to yield any gains.
In recent days, the IDF has increased its surveillance of the areas near the border fence and, in some cases, Israeli aircraft fired low-calibre munitions near those launching them. But it has refrained from directly firing on them because in many cases children are involved.
An IDF spokesman said on Wednesday that it believes the kite operation, originally a spontaneous move, is now controlled by Hamas.
