GAZA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli warcraft carried out nine successive airstrikes on Hamas military facilities in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Monday, in response to arson kites and balloons fired from the enclave, security sources said.
No injuries were reported in the nine airstrikes, according to medical sources.
The predawn airstrikes came just a day after the previous Israeli five successive airstrikes on launchers of arson balloons and kites as well as military facilities in Gaza.
On Saturday, two kites and balloons Palestinian launchers were moderately injured after they were targeted by a missile fired from an Israeli army drone east of al-Bureij refugee camp close to the border with Israel.
Flying and releasing kites and balloons is part of the ongoing Palestinian "Great March of Return" mass rally against Israel's 12-year crippling blockade, which started on March 30, and is held every Friday in five separate locations in eastern Gaza.
According to health ministry in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed at least 128 Palestinians, and injured 14,000 others since then.
Meanwhile, the highest commission of the Great March of Return accused Israeli army of trying to militarize the protests and rallies that are fully peaceful.
"Israel is trying to tell the public that the kites and balloons are dangerous and cause threat to the lives of Israelis. It is trying to militarize the peaceful marches of return," the commission said in an e-mailed press statement.
The group also accused Israel of justifying its use of excessive force against Palestinian activists.
"Israel is trying to portray those activists as militants to prepare for war crimes against them," the statement said.
