Residents of Israeli communities in the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip told Israel Hayom on Sunday of the terrible difficulties posed by Gaza's incendiary kite terrorism, which has so far destroyed thousands of acres of farmland and nature reserves.
The kites have burned almost 1,000 acres of farmland near Kibbutz Or Haner on Sunday, inflicting heavy damage. Some 40 fires have started by means of kites since Friday. One kite, fitted with an explosive device, was intercepted and defused.
"We stopped counting, we just go from one fire to the next. Every minute a new fire starts," said Yaakov Gabbay, a senior official at the Israel Fire and Rescue Service.
"It doesn't end, they simply decided that they're going until the end," said Danny Rahamim, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. "The last time we were at the water reservoir was last week and since then we haven't been able to get there because the army won't let us. For farmers close to the fence, this is simply a nightmare. It's dealing with things that people simply don't understand. All we want to do is grow our crops, but we're too busy with fires and being stopped by the army from doing all sorts of farming tasks. I'm not blaming the army, of course, because that's its job, but it's frustrating.
"At the end of the day, what are we asking? To work in our fields in peace. Over the past month and a half it has become absolutely unbearable. We thought this would end. It's a massive heartbreak and indescribable, throwing months of labor down the drain. We have been working so hard to irrigate and fertilize but in the end it all burns," he continued. "It's not only the fields – it's also in the forests, in the nature reserves and in nearby towns.
"We farmers will continue working our land, this is our home," Rahamim said. "The issue is that we feel as if we are air and that the establishment doesn't care. A little while ago, a government official said that 'the problem isn't Gaza, the problem is Iran,' and such statements offend us. This round of violence brings only more violence, a sort of never-ending loop: They shoot, we respond and then they shoot back. We must find a solution, as at the end of the day it doesn't matter who started it.
"I think that the government must take the initiative, as there is no military solution. We need to make things easier on them. Clearly Hamas is a terrorist organization whose goal is to destroy the State of Israel, but the question is what we do about it. We need to see how we can ease the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It obviously needs to be a carrot and a stick scenario. I want to know that the government is doing everything it can for the matter to be resolved nonviolently.
"I want to know that it really did everything," he repeated. "How much longer can we hold on? What are we here for? Children and people suffer here from post-trauma. We are strong but not immune, so it is important to see that something different is done on the matter, that there is hope."
Ofer Lieberman from Kibbutz Nir Am said that "incident simply follows incident. We are trying to work as usual. It starts in the afternoon and then the mess begins. That's how it is every day. It is an idiotic routine."
"Besides," he continued, "one of the things that saddens me is that the State of Israel has yet to officially characterize the kites and balloons launched from Gaza as terrorism. The government must send a clear message that during the cease-fire, the incendiary kites and balloons must stop. I feel that they view the kites as less serious. The solutions devised to combat the kites have not been effective. Reality has demonstrated that it doesn't work, the amount of fires in the area surrounding Gaza clearly demonstrates this.
"Then, on top of the fires, there's the rocket fire. Every hour, or hour and a half, we have to run to the shelters. Then, in the morning, we wake up to burned fields," he lamented.
Meanwhile Monday, Israeli security forces were bracing for potential clashes on what the Palestinians call Naksa Day, to be marked Tuesday, which commemorates the Arab defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Forces along the border with the Gaza Strip have stepped up their alert level, and additional troops have been deployed to the area, which include snipers, armored vehicles and infantry, as well as special forces. Israel's Iron Dome defense batteries were also equipped with a new batch of interceptor missiles to prepare for another barrage of rockets and mortar shells on communities situated near the Gaza strip.
Israel struck a de facto cease-fire agreement with Palestinian armed groups in Gaza last week after the most intense flare-up of hostilities since a 2014 war, both sides signaling they did not want a wider escalation.
Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired dozens of rockets and mortar bombs at southern Israel last week, to which Israel responded with tank fire and airstrikes on more than 50 targets in Gaza. Over the weekend, Palestinians fired rockets again, leading to Israeli airstrikes in retaliation overnight Saturday. On Sunday, although things were once again relatively calm, Palestinians crossed the Gaza fence and set ablaze several shipping containers. They ran back to the Gaza Strip before the IDF could engage them.
