The world must hold Hamas accountable for the ecological damage it has caused, setting around 700 fires in the last three months, demanded Israel’s UN envoy.
By: Batya Jerenberg, United with Israel
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Danny Danon, wrote a toughly-worded missive to its Deputy Secretary-General Thursday, Amina Mohammed, requesting that she “strongly” condemn Hamas for its recent and ongoing “acts of eco-terrorism” against Israel.
Danon pointed out that “over 100 days . . . Hamas terrorists…have used arson kites and other aerial delivery means to set almost 700 fires that have torched thousands of acres, including over 1,500 acres of agricultural fields in Israel. This is a new face of terrorism directly targeting the Israeli ecosystem,” which has caused millions in damage, he wrote.
Danon demanded in his letter to Mohammed that the world hold the terrorist organization “accountable for these latest attacks,” which are intended to eliminate Israeli farmers’ main source of livelihood. The attacks have also “caused irreparable damage to nature preserves and dozens of species of wildlife.”
Prior to her current position as Deputy Secretary-General, Mohammad served as Minister of Environment of Nigeria, where she worked on issues related to protecting the environment and conserving resources for sustainable development.
In contrast to the UN’s silence, the US administration has vociferously condemned Palestinian arson terror. In June, President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, slammed Hamas on social media.
“Hamas attack kites are not harmless playthings or metaphors for freedom. They are deployed as propaganda and indiscriminate weapons,” he tweeted.
The KKL-JNF, whose main raison d’etre for decades has been to plant trees and forests all over Israel, decided six weeks ago to go a different route in its protest and announced that it intends to sue Hamas in international court for the severe environmental damages caused to its land in the area from all the incendiary weapons that the terrorist organization has used in recent months, including mortar shells and rockets, as well as kites and balloons.
Thousands of kites, balloons, and even condoms, have been flown over the border from Gaza by Hamas supporters with their tails attached to incendiary devices and even makeshift bombs. Not all make it over the border, not all ignite, and some have been neutralized by IDF drones and other defensive measures.
The ones that have succeeded have mainly landed in agricultural areas and forests, as mentioned by Danon, but a few have also been spotted – and defused – in villages neighboring the coastal enclave.
One even landed in the yard of a kindergarten, providing a reminder that the these airborne terror attacks have the potential to cause serious injury and death if they are not halted soon.