Flaming kites from Gaza set fire in southern Israel

JERUSALEM, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Blazing kites from the Gaza Strip set fire in a wheat field in southern Israel amid a wave of protest in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

A spokesperson for the Sha'ar Ha'Negev Regional Council said several Molotov cocktails attached to kites were sent from Gaza to Israel.

The Israeli Fire Service said local farmers reported the fire, which was later put off by firefighters and farmers.

It is estimated that about 100 dunams (100,000 square meters) were burned down, Israel's Ynet news site reported.

Another fire broke out in a forest in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries were reported.

The incendiary kites were launched as part of a mass Palestinian protest known as the "March of Return."

It is expected to peak on May 15, the day after the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence but marked by the Palestinians as the Nakba Day, or "Day of the Catastrophe."

Thousands of people were injured by Israeli fire during the weekly rallies towards the fence between Gaza and Israel.

On Monday, a spokesman for the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that two youths succumbed to their wounds, bringing the death toll to 40.

Israel seized the Gaza Strip, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East war. It retracted its forces outside the enclave in 2005 but kept much of its control over the territory. Enditem