Palestinian “fire kite” terror, which has severely scorched Israel’s green south, “testifies to our enemies’ wretchedness,” Hanegbi said.
By: United with Israel Staff
Speaking to IDF Radio on Thursday, Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzahi Hanegbi acknowledged that the newest form of Palestinian terror – launching burning kites across the border into Israel – is frustrating, but it “testifies to our enemies’ wretchedness.”
“Here they have found a new [source] of damage. We will find a solution,” he asserted.
The “kite terror” has severely scorched Israel’s green south.
However, “we must not display panic,” Hanegbi said. “We found a solution for airplane highjacking, for suicide bombers, for the launching of Qassam rockets and for knife terrorism. We detect and destroy the terror tunnels. We have never become hysterical.”
Palestinian terrorists have launched more than 600 incendiary kites into Israel since the start of the March of Return some 10 weeks ago.
Despite the IDF’s best efforts to stop the kites in flight, more than 200 have managed to set fire to Israeli fields and property. More than 2,000 acres of wood and farmland have been damaged by the flames, ruining produce worth millions of shekels.
Many of the kites are painted with swastikas, revealing the Palestinian rioters’ true intentions and anti-Semitism.
Terrorists Boast About ‘a Lot of Damage’
“The kite is the best weapon and the most important weapon we have in Gaza, it’s better than all of the rockets and weapons we have,” a Palestinian terrorist told Israel’s Ynet on Thursday.
“When a rocket is fired from Gaza, you [Israel] have a response to it, but for the kites you don’t have a response, they cause you a lot of damage,” he boasted.
Ynet’s interview with the terrorist included many expressions of hate towards Israel, and he expressed no remorse at the environmental damage he is causing to the land, which he claims to be his own.
“If Israel has no problem burning Gaza, why should we have any problem burning Israel?” he offered.
Israel has tried to deploy drones to cut down the kites, with limited success. Due to the lack of a comprehensive solution to this low-tech and cheap weapon, there have been increasing calls in Israel to shoot the kite fliers, just like any other terrorist threatening the country.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday vowed that Israel will “settle the score” with the terrorists.
“We should be clear that we are not prepared to accept the kites becoming a routine. The same applies for riots on the border fence and attempts to breach it and cause damage to the sovereign territory of Israel,” Liberman stated.
“That’s why we will act in accordance with Israeli interests in time and at a timing that suits us, whenever we decide,” he warned. “In any event, I am not in the custom of leaving scores unsettled, and we will settle all scores with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”