Firefighters responded to at least four blazes in the Gaza area on Wednesday after terrorists launched incendiary balloons across the border for the second day in a row and just hours after Israel responded with airstrikes to similar provocations.
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Lebanese media reported that the balloons were launched by rogue groups that claim to be separate from Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas sources who spoke with the Al-Akhbar newspaper in Lebanon, the organization had made it clear to the Egyptian mediators who are working on brokering a truce with Israel that any Israeli action in the Gaza Strip in response to incendiary balloons will be met with retaliation.
According to those sources, the mediators were told that "popular resistance" will be used against Israel in the form of balloons and other means so long as Israel maintains its current policies toward the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. This could imply that Hamas will not restrain such activity until it gets more concessions from Israel in fishing rights, border crossing access and financial support that usually comes in the form of cash from Qatar.
A senior security official told Israel Hayom that Israel sent its own message to Hamas through the Egyptian brokers, warning that if the balloon terrorism continues Israel "would not be able to move forward in the ceasefire talks and will respond even more forcefully." It further said, "things will not stay the same."
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