IDF soldiers on Sunday evening spotted a kite with an improvised explosive device that was flown by Arabs from Gaza.
The soldiers located the kite near the Gaza border fence. The explosive that had been attached to it did not explode.
The “kite terrorism” continued on Sunday, as incendiary kites launched by Gaza Arabs caused a huge fire at the Carmia Reserve in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.
The fire raged for several hours and destroyed 75 acres (300 dunam) of the reserve's total of 250 acres (1,000 dunam).
Twelve teams of firefighters and four aircraft extinguished the fire.
Over the weekend, fires broke out in more than 40 locations in the Gaza vicinity. The largest fires on Sunday raged near kibbutzim Or Haner, Nir Am, and Be'eri.
Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed Meir Shabbat, chief of Israel’s National Security Council, to deduct money from the taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in order to compensate farmers harmed by the kite attacks.
Under the arrangement laid out by the Prime Minister, Israel will deduct from those tax transfers any monetary damages incurred by the recent “kite terror” attacks on Israeli border communities near Gaza. Israeli farmers and others impacted by the arson attacks will be compensated with money deducted from the PA taxes collected by Israel.