Gaza Border Heating Up Amid Renewed Launching Of Incendiary Devices Into Israel

The Israeli army struck a Hamas outpost in the Gaza Strip overnight following the renewed launching of incendiary devices into southern Israel. For months, Palestinians flew thousands of flammable objects—some with explosives attached to them—into the Jewish state in parallel to the so-called “March of Return” protests. The rudimentary kites and balloons caused massive ecological damage before Hamas agreed to curb the practice as part of a November cease-fire that narrowly averted a fourth major conflict over the past decade. This comes as Gazans are upping the frequency of border demonstrations, which on three occasions this week resulted in clashes with Israeli forces. Newly-minted military Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi on Wednesday met with the heads of the Gaza Division, touring the frontier amid assessments that Hamas could spark a conflagration in order to thrust its agenda back into the global spotlight while coaxing billions of dollars out of the international community. Meanwhile, United Nations Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace is fading while “the risk of war continues to loom large.”