Incendiary balloons land in Beersheba for first time

A cluster of incendiary balloons landed in the city of Beersheba for the first time on Monday evening, after hundreds of balloons and kites of this kind have been launched from Gaza into Israeli communities located close to the border over the past few months causing fires that have wreaked havoc on the land.Police sappers were called to Ringelblum Street over a report of suspicious balloons. The sappers closed the street, told bystanders to move away from the area and neutralized the threat before reopening the street.“These are balloons that have a suspicious item attached – in most cases an inflammatory item – and any such item should be treated as a suspicious object with a high level of risk,” the police spokesman said. “In such cases, it is necessary to report to the police station’s 100 call center and to move away from the scene until the operations of the police sappers have ended.”“Israel Police is responsible for public safety and security,” the spokesman stressed.Earlier this month, two balloons with flammable material attached were found in a the yard of a family home in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, marking the first time the phenomenon had reached the capital, though police suspected they had not been launched from Gaza.