Israel responds to "arson balloons" with airstrikes on Gaza in 1st flare-up since cease-fire

Gaza City — Israel carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Wednesday after militants in the Palestinian territory sent incendiary balloons into the south of the country. It was the first flare-up between the two sides since a major conflict in May in which hundreds were killed.

The strikes were also the first under Israel's new coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett, who took over on Sunday after ousting former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and they came as more than 1,000 ultranationalist demonstrators bearing Israeli flags poured into Jerusalem's flashpoint Old City on Tuesday, with scores of police deployed and international monitors urging calm. According to Palestinian sources, Israel's air force targeted at least one site east of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, which is home to some two million people.