Palestinians armed with grenade and knife held after breaching Gaza border

Israeli soldiers arrest two who infiltrated the Jewish state armed with weapons amid demonstrations in the Gaza strip over the last month

Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinian men who crossed into Israel from Gaza armed with a grenade and a knife.

The men were taken in Tuesday morning shortly after they crossed the security fence at the border, according to the Israel Defene Forces. They were turned over for questioning to the Israeli Security Agency, or Shin Bet.

The infiltration came a day after four Palestinian men who entered Israel through the security fence near Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel were arrested.

Also Monday, Gazan Palestinians sent four kites carrying firebombs over the border fence. The kites touched down in a wheat field in southern Israel, setting fire to the crop. Some 25 acres of wheat were burned in the attack.

The explosives-laden kites are an escalation of the weekly protests at the Gaza-Israel border, called the March of Return, which are scheduled to end on May 14, the 70th anniversary according to the Gregorian calendar of the birth of the modern State of Israel, which the Arab world calls the Nakba, or catastrophe.

Israel has faced international condemnation for its response to Palestinian demonstrations at the border. Some 35 Palestinians have been killed in rioting since the start of protests late last month.

On Friday, the kite that was flown over the border carrying a firebomb was decorated with a green swastika. Several fires have been set by such explosive-carrying kites in recent days.

A masked man from central Gaza who said he was among those preparing the kites told the Al-Jazeera news channel: “These are our lands, and we have the right to return to them. We say to them, we will not let them sow our lands and enjoy them.”