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Pro-Hamas Activists Launch Incendiary Balloons into Israel

Palestinians prepare to attach an incendiary device to balloons before realeasing them to Israeli lands near the border between Israel and Eastern Gaza Strip. (EPA file photo)
Palestinians prepare to attach an incendiary device to balloons before realeasing them to Israeli lands near the border between Israel and Eastern Gaza Strip. (EPA file photo)
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Pro-Hamas Activists Launch Incendiary Balloons into Israel

Palestinians prepare to attach an incendiary device to balloons before realeasing them to Israeli lands near the border between Israel and Eastern Gaza Strip. (EPA file photo)
Palestinians prepare to attach an incendiary device to balloons before realeasing them to Israeli lands near the border between Israel and Eastern Gaza Strip. (EPA file photo)

Incendiary balloons launched from the Gaza Strip on Sunday caused at least three blazes in southern Israel, Israeli media reported, raising the prospect of renewed Israeli strikes on the Hamas-run territory.

Photos and video posted on social media showed Hamas-linked activists launching the balloons. On one of them was written the message: “Time is running out.”

The launches came two months after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. The militant group is upset that Israel has done little to ease a crippling blockade on the territory since the fighting ended, and over delays in indirect negotiations with Israel to resume Qatari financial aid to Gaza.

Israeli media reported at least three fires set in southern Israel, breaking a three-week lull in the launches of the incendiary balloons.

Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, has compared the balloon launches to rocket fire and has ordered airstrikes following previous launches.

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Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
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Iraq's Population Reaches 45.4 Million in First Census in over 30 Years

Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)
Workers prepare to collect information from the public as Iraq began its first nationwide population census in decades, in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP)

Iraq's population has risen to 45.4 million, according to preliminary results from a national census, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said on Monday.
The census, conducted on Nov. 20, was Iraq's first nationwide survey in more than three decades, marking a crucial step for future planning and development.
Prior to the census, the planning ministry estimated the population at 43 million.
The last census, conducted in 1997, did not include the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which has been under Kurdish administration since the 1991 Gulf War.
It counted 19 million Iraqis and officials estimated there were another 3 million in the Kurdish north, according to official statistics.