The Israeli Air Force struck several terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip late Sunday night and early Monday morning in response to the arson attacks on Israel emanating from Gaza, the IDF said Monday.
In response to the Israeli strikes, Gaza terrorists fired three rockets at southern Israel, causing no harm.
"Moments ago, IAF fighter jets struck nine military targets in two military compounds and in a munition manufacturing site belonging to the Hamas terror organization in the northern Gaza Strip. The strikes were conducted in response to arson and explosive kites and balloons that have been launched into Israel," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit posted on its Twitter account.
The rocket warning alert sounded across the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council soon after 5 a.m., and the IDF confirmed that three projectiles had been fired at the area. The IDF said two hit open areas and the third hit on the Gazan side of the border.
The overnight strikes were a step up in the Israeli response to Palestinian kite terrorism, signaling to Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, to curb the phenomenon or lose more assets.
"The IDF's intelligence and operational capabilities will allow it to increase these strikes as necessary. The IDF is determined to continue to act with increasing intensity against these acts of terror as long as required, using the variety of tools at its disposal," a military spokesman tweeted.
'IDF won't hesitate to target terrorist kite launchers'
Over 22 fires were sparked Sunday in Israeli communities near the Gaza border as a result of the Palestinians' kite terrorism campaign.
With incendiary kites and balloon posing a growing threat to the safety and livelihoods of residents in communities near the border, as well as to local wildlife and vegetation, senior military officers told Israel Hayom that the IDF plans to step up its response against the terrorist kite launchers.
The IDF is mostly using drone technology to combat kite terrorism, but several defense officials are warning that if the attacks do not lessen, the IDF will begin launching surgical airstrikes against the kite cells – a policy currently used against terrorists who fire rockets at Israel.
"There are many steps we can take to escalate our response," one officer said. "Until now, we fired warning shots at kite cells, but we won't hesitate to launch airstrikes against them. We must, however, exercise discretion so as not to find ourselves in a situation similar to the summer of 2014 and be forced to launch a military campaign that Israel has no interest in waging.
"We have no problem eliminating kite-launching cells from the air, but that risks a summer of rocket fire on southern Israel."
He said Israel's main interest at this time "is completing the [underground] countertunnel barrier, which will ensure the IDF will be in a better position when the next conflict in Gaza takes place."
The IDF fired warning shots at two terrorist kite cells in Gaza on Sunday. Later in the day, an Israeli aircraft struck the vehicle of one of the ringleaders of the kite terrorism campaign, in the Shujaiyya neighborhood in Gaza. No one was wounded in the strike but it marked an escalation in Israel's response to kite terrorism.
Also on Sunday, police and military sappers neutralized several explosive kites and balloon that landed on the Israeli side of the border.
"For the past few weeks I have been pushing for incendiary kites or balloons to be treated as if they were a Qassam rocket and that we should fire on those who launch them, as we do on those who fire Qassams," Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett said ahead of Sunday's cabinet meeting.
"I am happy that the IDF is gradually adopting this approach. We shouldn't wait for Israelis to get hurt before we wake up and do something," he said.
