As the oppressive July heat and humidity settles in, residents of Gaza-adjacent communities in southern Israel are seeing no abatement to the fires caused by burning kites and balloons flown over the border from Gaza, which consumed thousands of acres of farmland and racked up millions of dollars' worth of damage.
On Tuesday, residents of communities near the Gaza border reported 36 different fires caused when the burning toys touched down. Over 600 dunams (150 acres) of the Baram Forest nature preserve went up in flames, bringing the total amount of national park acreage scorched in less than a week to 4,000 dunams (nearly 1,000 acres).
Also Tuesday, four firefighting squads and four firefighting aircraft spent hours battling a large fire near Kibbutz Or Haner. It was successfully extinguished.
Over 30,000 dunams (7,400 acres) of open land in Israel have been torched since Hamas began employing the incendiary balloons and kites, including 9,000 dunams (2,200) of JNF land. The Kissufim and Beeri forested areas lost 4,700 and 3,200 dunams (1,100 and 800 acres), respectively.
Some 15,000 dunams (3,700 acres) of national parkland have been reduced to ash, with Nahal Habesor and Gvaram particularly hard hit, losing some 7,000 dunams (1,700 acres) combined.
In response to the ongoing arson from Gaza, Israel announced on Monday it was closing the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing to Gaza to everything except essential humanitarian supplies.
On Tuesday, the United Nations on Tuesday criticized Israel's decision, warning that the measure could have negative consequences.
In a statement, U.N. Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov urged Israel to reverse the closure and said he was "concerned about the consequences."
"Humanitarian assistance is not a substitute for commerce and trade," he said.
He also urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to "do their part by maintaining calm, stopping incendiary kites and preventing other provocations."
