Initial reports claim a Hamas operative was hit in the strike. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at one with possible injuries to passers-by. But there are conflicting accounts that the operative survived. Photographs of the aftermath show the car was hit in a built-up residential area.

Following the strike, people on social media reported the presence of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) recon aircraft and helicopters in the west of the central region. Red-alert siren alarms also sounded in southern Israel near the Gaza border. The IDF said in a statement: “Following reports regarding sirens in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, one launch was identified from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory.” Palestinian local reportied the entry of IDF aircraft into Gaza airspace.

The explosion comes after another strike by IDF against two other Palestinian cars on Tuesday. Israeli drones destroyed two cars and an observation post that were being used by Palestinians to launch incendiary balloons into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The IDF confirmed that its aircraft conducted three strikes in response to repeated arson attacks from the Palestine costal enclave. In a statement, the IDF said: “An IDF aircraft attacked a car in the northern Gaza Strip that was being used by a group of incendiary balloon launchers, as well as an observation post from which they were launching balloons.”</s>Israel struck a Gaza refugee camp late on Tuesday, targeting a car allegedly belonging to a ‘Hamas operative’, prompting Gaza fighters to fire a dozen rockets into Israel in response.

Israeli aircraft and a tank struck the vehicle in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, where local residents said the car exploded in a ball of flames. A picture posted on social media showed a fireball in an alleyway said to be the car that had been hit.

A statement by the Israeli military claimed the car had belonged to a militant “heavily involved in launching arson and explosive balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israel”. Two Hamas observation posts were also hit, it added.

The incendiary balloons, as well as kites, have become a potent symbol of a wave of Palestinian protests that broke out on March 30 against Israel’s crippling decade-long blockade of Gaza.

No one has been hurt by the fires, but the flames – stoked by Mediterranean winds – have caused crop losses, Israel has claimed.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in Gaza said Israel’s targeting of the car had “merited a quick response” in the firing of the rockets and showed armed factions were ready to “defend our people and protect their interests”.

Three projectiles were destroyed in flight by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, an army spokesman told AFP.</s>A vehicle and two Hamas “observation posts” have been targeted and destroyed by Israeli Defense Forces, while the Iron Dome anti-missile system has intercepted at least three rockets fired at Israel from Gaza.

A “barrage of projectiles” was launched towards southern Israel after IAF aircraft and IDF tanks shelled the militant organization’s targets inside the enclave. The destroyed targets included a vehicle allegedly belonging to a Hamas operative, believed to have been “heavily involved” in explosive balloon attacks. In addition, the IDF struck two Hamas observation posts.

“The Hamas terror organization will bear the consequences for facilitating terror and instability,” the IDF said.

On Tuesday night sirens sounded in Hof Ashkelon, Sha'ar HaNegev and Eshkol Regional Councils when nine rockets were launched from the Gaza strip, the IDF said. One of the projectiles was intercepted by the IDF’s Iron Dome Aerial Defense System. Afterwards, Israel detected three more incoming rockets, two of which were tackled by the air defense system. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the other eight projectiles, which usually strike uninhabited areas.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli jet destroyed another car and an observation post used by Palestinians to launch arson balloons. Over the last couple of weeks, Israel has intensified its effort to stop balloon and kite launches of homemade incendiary devices, which have become a symbol of Arab resistance during the Great March of Return protests along the Gaza-Israeli border since late March. In order to put a halt to these terrorist activities, Israel has limited the amount of helium gas that can be brought into Gaza, restricting it to medical treatment purposes only. The IDF and the IAF, meanwhile, intensified the crackdown on Hamas, which they hold fully responsible for the upsurge in cross-border violence.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!</s>The Israel Air Force struck vehicles used by a cell involved in the launching of incendiary balloons against Israeli communities near the Gaza border, the IDF Spokesperson's office reported Tuesday.



Israeli planes also struck an observation post from which incendiary balloons had been launched, the statement said.



var cont = `Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>



`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ });</s>Israeli army drones have carried out three successive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, in response to arson kites and balloons fired from the enclave. The airstrikes on Sunday injured four persons, according to medical sources, Xinhua news agency reported. An Israeli drone fired a missile at a training facility that belongs to the Islamic Hamas movement’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades in central Gaza, with no injuries reported.

Another drone fired a rocket on a motorbike in the refugee camp of al-Bureij close to the border between eastern Gaza and Israel, also with no injuries. The third airstrike on eastern Gaza City injured four. It targeted a vehicle which carried young Palestinians flying flaming kites and balloons into Israel. The Israeli army is not immediately available for comment on the airstrikes.

Flying and releasing kites and balloons is part of the ongoing Palestinian “Great March of Return” mass rally against Israel’s 11-year crippling blockade, which started on March 30. Israeli media reported last Thursday that flaming kites and balloons caused four huge fires in agricultural fields in Israel.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the health ministry spokesman in Gaza, earlier told reporters that Israeli forces have killed at least 132 Palestinians, and injured 14,000 others since March 30. Around half of the injured were shot by live ammunition, and many of them are still in critical condition, he added.</s>Initial reports claim a Hamas operative was hit in the strike. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll at one with possible injuries to passers-by. But there are conflicting accounts that the operative survived. Photographs of the aftermath show the car was hit in a built-up residential area.

Following the strike, people on social media reported the presence of Israeli Defence Force (IDF) recon aircraft and helicopters in the west of the central region. Red-alert siren alarms also sounded in southern Israel near the Gaza border. The IDF said in a statement: “Following reports regarding sirens in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, one launch was identified from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory.” Palestinian local reportied the entry of IDF aircraft into Gaza airspace.

The explosion comes after another strike by IDF against two other Palestinian cars on Tuesday. Israeli drones destroyed two cars and an observation post that were being used by Palestinians to launch incendiary balloons into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. The IDF confirmed that its aircraft conducted three strikes in response to repeated arson attacks from the Palestine costal enclave. In a statement, the IDF said: “An IDF aircraft attacked a car in the northern Gaza Strip that was being used by a group of incendiary balloon launchers, as well as an observation post from which they were launching balloons.”</s>Dear Reader, 

 As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analyses from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.

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For a symbolic $5 a month you will receive access to the following:
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Help us grow and continue telling Israel’s story to the world.</s>Lockheed Martin dropped off three more F-35I "Adir" jets to the Israeli Air Force Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The IAF has confirmed that it will buy at least 50 F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin, but it's not clear if the country will procure more than that. For their part, US service branches have committed to buying thousands of units, a figure that will likely never come to fruition due to the aircraft's history of cost overruns and missed deadlines.

An internal Pentagon analysis concluded in March that unless the US Air Force can find ways to reduce F-35 operation and support costs by 38 percent over the next decade, the service will only be able to acquire about two-thirds of the 1,763 aircraft it wants.

Beyond the 50 F-35s that Israel has already allocated funding for, Israeli lawmakers have pumped the brakes on future purchases of 25 to 50 more jets requested by the IAF. In 

September 2017, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee released a report calling for the IDF to conduct an "analysis of alternatives" that might reveal options for the IAF that don't include buying more than 50 F-35 Adirs in total.

"With all the existing limitations, we cannot ignore the need to meticulously assess the face of the future, especially with regard to air combat platforms, which are so expensive, critical and [subject to] rapidly changing technologies," Israeli lawmakers wrote in the September 27 report.</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — Code Red rocket warning sirens sounded throughout southern Israeli communities near the border with Gaza as more than a dozen rockets were launched from the coastal strip at civilian communities.

The rockets were fired between 1:45 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning, sending thousands of civilian residents of southern Israel to bomb shelters and safe rooms. At least three were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Elementary schools and kindergartens, which are in regular session though the end of the month, opened as usual Wednesday morning.

The rockets came hours after the Israeli military fired on a vehicle belonging to a Hamas operative heavily involved in launching arson kites and balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israel as well as two Hamas observation posts in northern Gaza. The attacks were in response to repeated arson attacks from Gaza, according to the IDF. Several fires were sparked in southern Israeli communities on Tuesday due to the incendiary balloons.

“The Hamas terror organization will bear the consequences for facilitating terror and instability,” the IDF said following the rocket attacks.

The IDF has begun to fire warning shots at Gazan Palestinian groups preparing to launch burning kites and balloons and to retaliate for the arson attacks with air strikes on Hamas targets. Gazan Palestinian groups have retaliated for the air strikes with early morning rocket attacks on several occasions in recent days.
The Israeli Air Force strikes vehicles it claims were being used to launch incendiary balloons from Gaza over the border into Israel.