Palestinians at the Gaza border flew a kite marked with a swastika and carrying a petrol bomb into Israel on Friday.

The Israeli army posted photographs of the kite in the air and on the ground inside Israel.

An IDF spokesman, Jonathan Conricus, wrote: “Moments ago, terrorist Hamas sent a Molotov cocktail over the Gaza border into Israel. They flew it with their true colors.”

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April 20 was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

Friday marked the fourth weekend in succession that thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated at the border, in mass protests encouraged by the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers. Originally declared as non-violent “March of Return” protests, the demonstrations are being encouraged by Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, and whose leaders say the goal of the protests is to erase the border and liberate Palestine.

Moments ago, terrorist #Hamas sent a Molotov cocktail over the Gaza border into Israel.

They flew it with their true colors. pic.twitter.com/LOexWD76lf — Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) April 20, 2018

The Israeli army says it has faced “terror” at the fence during the weekly protests, including a shooting incident, numerous efforts to breach the fence, stone- and bomb-throwing. In recent days, Gazans have flown kites carrying petrol bombs across the border, and these have caused fires several times in Israeli fields close to the border.

On Tuesday, one such kite started a fire in a grassy grove outside Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli community located some seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp. It took four teams of firefighters to bring the blaze under control, a spokesman for the local fire department said. The Kan news broadcaster reported that the fire had spread over almost 100 dunams (25 acres).

Gazans filmed the kite crossing the border and starting the blaze, in a video shared on social media.

תיעוד השלכת העפיפון היום מאל בוריג' שברצועת עזה לעבר בארי והשריפה שנוצרה במקום בעקבות הבקבוק תבערה Posted by ‎החדשות החמות‎ on Tuesday, 17 April 2018

The kites seem to be the latest phase in the ongoing clashes on the Gaza border, as Palestinians have rioted and protested along the security fence almost daily since March 30.

Fridays have been by far the most active days, with over 40,000 people taking part in the first protest, nearly 30,000 taking part in the second and approximately 10,000 participating in the third and most recent, according to the IDF’s figures. As of late afternoon, Friday’s fourth protests involved some 3,000 people.

These violent demonstrations have often included the burning of tires and Israeli flags.

Palestinian flags combined with swastika flags have also been sight.

As this month also marks the beginning of Israel’s dry season, an IDF spokesperson on Friday said the military was prepared for the possibility that fires might break out and had therefore coordinated with local fire departments and put firefighting planes on standby.

However, when asked earlier this week specifically about the low-tech threat posed by kites carrying incendiary devices, the army offered scant details about its ability to combat the threat. “The IDF is prepared and ready for various scenarios during the riots organized along the Gaza fence,” the army said in a statement.

On Monday, the local Eshkol regional council issued a stark warning to residents, telling them to be on alert for these airborne arson attacks.

“In the last 24 hours, there have been several cases of kites flying with Molotov cocktails from the Strip to our territory,” the council said in a statement. “The public is asked to be alert and to report on any unusual incident of fires in the area.”

Last month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) organized a “Kites of Hope” festival for over 1,000 Gazan schoolchildren from Khan Younis.

The National Forum for the March of Return, one of several Palestinian groups behind the weekly demonstrations, moved its protest tents closer to the border ahead of Friday’s protests, in order, it said, to “affirm our right to return” — a reference to the Palestinian demand that Israel allow tens of thousands of refugees and their millions of descendants to return to their former homes inside Israel. Such a demand would mean the end of Israel as a majority Jewish state.

The protests in Gaza are expected to continue until mid-May, around the time the US is set to inaugurate its new embassy in Jerusalem.

Mid-May will also mark the anniversary of what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe, which saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee their homes during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.

According to the United Nations, some 1.3 million of Gaza’s 1.9 million residents are refugees or their descendants.

At previous peace talks, the Palestinians have always demanded, along with sovereignty in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Old City, a “right of return” to Israel for Palestinian refugees who left or were forced out of Israel when it was established. The Palestinians demand this right not only for those of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are still alive — a figure estimated in the low tens of thousands — but also for their descendants, who number in the millions.

No Israeli government would ever be likely to accept this demand, since it would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority state. Israel’s position is that Palestinian refugees and their descendants would become citizens of a Palestinian state at the culmination of the peace process, just as Jews who fled or were forced out of Middle Eastern countries by hostile governments became citizens of Israel. </s> JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two Palestinian men crossed into Israel from Gaza armed with a grenade and a knife.

The men were arrested by Israeli soldiers on Tuesday morning shortly after they crossed the security fence at the border between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

They were turned over for questioning to the Israeli Security Agency, or Shin Bet.

The infiltration comes a day after four Palestinian men entered Israel through the security fence near Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel.

Also on Monday, Gazan Palestinians sent four kites carrying firebombs over the border fence. The kites touched down in a wheat field in southern Israel, setting fire to the crop. Some 25 acres of wheat were burned in the attack.

The explosives-laden kites are an escalation of the weekly protests at the Gaza-Israel border, called the March of Return, which are scheduled to end on May 14, the 70th anniversary according to the Gregorian calendar of the birth of the modern State of Israel, which the Arab world calls the Nakba, or Catastrophe.

On Friday, the kite that was flown over the border carrying a firebomb was decorated with a green swastika. Several fires have been set by such explosive-carrying kites in recent days.

A masked man from central Gaza who said he was among those preparing the kites told the Al-Jazeera news channel that: “These are our lands, and we have the right to return to them. We say to them, we will not let them sow our lands and enjoy them. </s> Three Israeli right-wing activists sought to fight fire with fire, retaliating to incendiary kite attacks from Gaza with their own creation — which crashed short of the border and sparked a blaze near a kibbutz, according to reports.

“There are extremists and there are idiots. The worst is a mix of the two,” tweeted Amir Peretz, a Zionist Union member of the Israeli Knesset.

The three men were captured by Israeli soldiers and held for questioning.

One of them, Ran Karmi Buzaglo, claimed that he and his cohorts had merely been trying to make a “humorous video,” the Israeli Haaretz reported.

The video shows Buzaglo igniting a piece of cloth tied to a kite and trying to set it aloft toward Gaza – but it lands inside Israel as someone is heard shouting, “No, no, no!”

Before launching the Molotov cocktail-like weapon, Buzaglo, 54, delivered a warning to Hamas honcho Ismail Haniyeh.

“Listen, man, don’t play with us,” he said in Arabic before continuing in Hebrew: “We are here on the Gaza border. We will teach them how to do it right. We have prepared gifts for them. Soon they will understand that everything they know how to do, we know how to do better.”

Buzaglo recently mocked Palestinians for using the exact same tactic.

“The best minds of IMI [Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer] are developing a laser beam that will intercept kites,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The development will be operational in 2025 and will cost nearly a billion dollars. Meanwhile, the possibility is being considered of putting a bullet in the head of every terrorist who flies a kite bomb.”

A kite carrying flammable material was recently sent from Gaza and sparked a fire near Kibbutz Am close to the border, the Times of Israel reported.

An Israeli soldier shot and wounded the Palestinian as he launched the kite.

In the past several weeks, Gazans have flown kites outfitted with containers of burning fuel – frequently including charcoal and bags of sugar to ensure a long burn – as well as incendiary helium balloons.

Haim Jelin, another Israeli lawmaker, said that “flying an incendiary kite into Israel is equal to launching a Qassam rocket into it.

“Those who do not understand that, don’t understand the implications,” he added. “When the fire is 50 meters away from a community and could easily spread, we cannot ignore under any circumstances the kite terror and allow it to be our routine.” </s> Three right-wing activists were arrested in Israel on Friday after attempting to send an incendiary kite into the Gaza Strip. The kite was believed to have fallen inside Israeli territory, where it started a small conflagration.

One of the suspects, Ran Karmi Buzaglo, claimed that he had been attempting to make a "humorous video."

The fire was quickly extinguished and the three men were taken into police custody for questioning. A video of the incident shows Buzaglo setting fire to a piece of cloth tied to a kite and trying to fly it into Gaza. The video ends with the kite falling within Israeli territory, while someone is heard shouting "no, no, no."

In a video taken before the fire, Karmi Buzaglo addresses Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, saying in Arabic: "Listen, man, don't play with us." He continues in Hebrew: "We are here on the Gaza border. We will teach them how to do it right. We have prepared gifts for them. Soon they will understand that everything they know how to do, we know how to do better."

Karmi Buzaglo recently mocked the use of incendiary kites by protesting Palestinians. "The best minds of IMI [Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer] are developing a laser beam that will intercept kites," he wrote on Twitter. "The development will be operational in 2025 and will cost nearly a billion dollars. Meanwhile, the possibility is being considered of putting a bullet in the head of every terrorist who flies a kite bomb."

Karmi Buzaglo, 54, led a public campaign in support of Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of shooting a dead a wounded assailant in Hebron in 2016. He added the name Buzaglo three years ago in protest of religious figures' statements against Mizrahi Jews. </s> Three Israeli men were detained for questioning Friday after a burning kite they tried to fly into the Gaza Strip fell on the Israeli side of the border, setting off a small brushfire.

Ran Karmi Buzaglo, the only man whose name was released, later claimed the stunt was an effort to make a video “to amuse and strengthen the morale of local residents who have suffered as a result of the ‘kite terrorism.’”

The fire was quickly extinguished and the three men were taken into police custody for questioning. A video of the incident filmed by one of the three shows Karmi Buzaglo and a second man setting fire to a piece of cloth tied to a kite and trying to fly it into Gaza. It ends with the kite falling inside Israeli, followed by someone shouting “no, no, no.”

skip - Video filmed by right-wing activists near Gaza border

Video filmed by right-wing activists near Gaza border - דלג Video filmed by right-wing activists near Gaza border Ran Karmi Buzaglo

In another video filmed before the incident, Karmi Buzaglo addresses Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Arabic, saying: “Listen, man, don’t toy with us,” before continuing in Hebrew: “We are here on the Gaza border. We will teach them how to do it right. We have prepared gifts for them. Soon they will understand that everything they know how to do, we know how to do better.”

Karmi Buzaglo recently mocked the use of incendiary kites by protesting Palestinians. “The best minds of IMI [Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer] are developing a laser beam that will intercept kites,” he wrote on Twitter. “The development will be operational in 2025 and will cost nearly $1 billion. Meanwhile, the possibility is being considered of putting a bullet in the head of every terrorist who flies a kite bomb.”

Karmi Buzaglo, 54, led a public campaign in support of Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier convicted of shooting a dead a wounded assailant in Hebron in 2016. He added the name Buzaglo to his own three years ago to protest derogatory remarks by Jewish religious figures about Mizrahi Jews. </s> For years Israel spared no effort to end rocket smuggling into the besieged Gaza Strip, while creating a sophisticated anti-missile system to intercept those that ended up in Hamas's hands.

But its formidable army is scrambling for a response to new Palestinian weapons that cost pennies to make: flaming kites and helium inflated condoms sent over the fortified border to torch Israeli farmlands.

Israel calls them "terror kites." Hundreds have been launched in recent months, burning thousands of acres of farmland.

The "kite war” now threatens to start a real war neither side wants. Gaza Palestinians have always been fond of kites.

A few years ago they set a record by flying more than 13,000 of them simultaneously.

There is perhaps something aspirational about the aerial toys for a people that controls neither its sea, air, nor border crossings.

Using them as flame delivery systems, however, was a byproduct of protests since March at Gaza's border in which Israeli troops killed dozens of Palestinians as some tried to breach the fence. </s> Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council late Friday that Israeli forces continue demonstrating the "cruelty of their occupation machine, responding to the calls of unarmed civilians for freedom and justice with brutal and lethal force." He said one of the latest victims was a 25-year-old disabled man.

Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the long-stalled peace process between the two countries, said on Twitter Friday that the 15-year-old's death is "outrageous."

Turnout for the marches has fluctuated, with the biggest showing on March 30, but Friday's crowd appeared to have been somewhat larger than the one the previous week.

The marches are part of what organizers, led by Hamas, have billed as an escalating showdown with Israel, to culminate in a mass march on May 15.

The top Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Friday that people should get ready for large crowds spilling across the border that day. "Our people will outnumber the occupation and force it from our land," he said, referring to Israel.

Hamas says the protests are aimed at breaking a crippling border blockade that was imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Islamic militant group overran Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian parliament elections.

The marches also press for a "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from homes in the 1948 war over Israel's creation. Palestinians mark May 15, the anniversary of Israel's founding, as their "nakba," or catastrophe, to mourn their mass uprooting.

Several thousand protesters flocked to the border area Friday, most gathering at five tent camps several hundred meters away from the border. Smaller groups advanced toward the fence, throwing stones, burning tires and flying kites with burning rags.

The kites are part of a new tactic aimed at setting fields on the Israeli side on fire. Most kites showed the colors of the Palestinian flag. One white kite bore a Nazi swastika.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that "The IDF will not allow any harm to security infrastructure that protects Israeli civilians, and will act against the violent rioters and terrorists who threaten either."

Earlier on Friday, Israeli military aircraft had dropped leaflets urging Palestinians to stay away from the fence and warning that they endanger their lives by following Hamas directives.

Meanwhile, Palestinians were using kites to drop leaflets on the Israeli side claiming Jerusalem is Palestine's capital and urging Israelis not to respond to their leadership.

While Hamas and smaller Palestinian factions have taken a lead as organizers, the mass marches are also fueled by growing desperation among Gaza's 2 million residents.

The border blockade has trapped nearly all of them in the tiny coastal territory, gutted the economy and deepened poverty. Gaza residents typically get fewer than five hours of electricity per day, while unemployment has soared above 40 percent. </s> Two alleged supporters of a neo-Nazi terrorist group have been arrested after 155kg of explosives were discovered in Germany.

One suspect had built a homemade bomb emblazoned with a swastika and symbol of the Nazi SS, prosecutors announced on Saturday.

The men, aged 18 and 24, were arrested after the explosives were discovered inside a house in Lauterecken, causing more than 80 local residents to be evacuated from the surrounding area so the material could be safely removed.

The pair denied planning a terror attack when they were arrested in December, SWR television reported, claiming to be amateur pyrotechnics preparing for a New Year’s Eve firework display.

The two men, of German origin, are being held on suspicion of violating explosives laws and preparing a “serious act of state-threatening violence”.

Prosecutors are examining a possible link to the Oldschool Society (OSS), an extremist organisation known to have planned attacks on refugee centres and mosques since it emerged in 2014.

A spokesperson said the teenage suspect told investigators he had attended an OSS meeting in Rhineland-Palatinate state over the summer, the DPA news agency reported.

Four members of the group are already on trial in Munich for allegedly planning an attack on asylum seekers.

Federal prosecutors charged the three men and a woman with “establishing a terror organisation” and preparing attacks using explosives in January 2015.

Officials said members had planned to bomb refugee accommodation in the German town of Borna, and travelled to the Czech Republic to buy pyrotechnics which they planned to make into bombs packed with nails and fuel.

The interior ministry has classified the OSS as a dangerous organisation but it was also dubbed the “stupidest terror group in Germany” by media reporting that members discussed plots openly on Facebook.

A rise in extremism has been documented in Germany since the start of the refugee crisis and a series of terror attacks, with far-right groups including Pegida staging protests against immigration and the “Islamification of Europe”.

Numerous attacks on refugee centres have been documented as part of a rise in political violence by both the right and left wing.

German security services also remain on alert for possible Isis-inspired terror attacks following the massacre at a Berlin Christmas market and two previous attacks over the summer. </s> Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded after IDF troops opened fire while they were trying to sabotage the border fence and cross into Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Sunday.



According to a statement by the IDF the four men who “arrived at the perimeter fence to infiltrate into Israeli territory and attempt to carry out hostile terror activity” were under surveillance by troops who opened fire on them when they acted suspiciously next to the fence.





One of the terrorists was found to have a camera, an ax, a jacket, oxygen mask and gloves. Two bottles of gasoline was found next to another Palestinian who was killed by troops.Palestinian Health Ministry identified the fatalities as 23 year-old Baha Abdul Rahman Qdeih and 20 year old Mohammad Khaled Abu Rideh. A third was said to have been evacuated to hospital in serious condition.Overnight Sunday the IDF struck a Hamas outpost in the northern Gaza Strip near the border fence that the military said was used as a location from which terrorists launched incendiary kites and other objects in an attempt to burn Israeli territory."We will continue to act against terror attacks above and below ground," the IDF said in a statement. "The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip."The military also stressed there was no connection between the strike and an earlier explosion in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah Saturday evening that killed six Hamas members.On Friday, riots broke out at five locations along the Gaza-Israel security fence for the sixth consecutive week of demonstrations called “The March of Great Return” by Palestinian organizers. According to the IDF, protesters burned tires, threw stones and flew kites with flammable material with the aim of starting fires in Israeli territory.Prior to the demonstrations, the army’s Arabic Spokesperson warned Gazans against using the incendiary kites, posting on Twitter that the IDF is taking the issue seriously.“The arson phenomenon is not hidden from our eyes, and we are taking it very seriously. Attack kites are not a kids' game, and we don’t see it that way,” Maj. Avichai Adraee posted, warning Gazans that "Hamas is using you, and is pushing you toward the cycle of terrorism."The heads of security for the Israeli communities along the border of the Gaza Strip warned residents not to touch any kites that have landed in Israeli territory, stating that the kites could be booby-trapped.The IDF accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to carry out attacks against IDF troops.Gazans have ramped up their use of these kite bombs in recent weeks as a way to breach the border and cause damage within Israeli territory.Israeli farmers in Gaza border communities have asked the Tax Authority for compensation after an approximate 800 dunams (200 acres) of fields were destroyed in fires sparked by these kites."When the courts in Jerusalem are discussing petitions from left-wing organizations to tie the hands of the soldiers standing in front of the Gaza rioters who want to break through the fence, the arson continues in the fields of farmers," said Shai Hajaj, head of the Merhavim Regional council.Hajaj continued: "It is necessary to remind both the judges and advocates for Palestinian rights that stone-throwing and the burning of fields is violence, which has already caused severe economic damage and threatens human life. Palestinian rioters burning fields with kites is no longer limited to the Friday 'right-of-return' demonstrations, but rather an everyday event. We demand that the IDF put a stop to this violence immediately."Member of Knesset Haim Jelin, from the political party Yesh Atid, weighed in on the situation after the attack on Wednesday: "It is forbidden to downplay the most recent kite terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip, which have ignited fields in three separate attacks. The person who downplays this now will find himself with more threats in Israeli territory."While the army does not have any response to these rudimentary kites, during the clashes on Friday an IDF drone was reported to have downed a kite by cutting its strings.Jonathan Weber Rosen contributed to this report.
One petrol bomb-carrying kite is flown over the border adorned with a swastika.