Palestinians fly balloons loaded with flammable material, near the Israel-Gaza Strip border. Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

Tension on the Israel-Gaza Strip border remained high on Tuesday, with the IAF targeting Palestinian terrorist squads engaged in launching incendiary balloons.

According to Hebrew news site Mako, one squad was operating in southern Gaza, with the other in the north. The Israeli military struck them after a balloon landed in the region of the Eshkol Regional Council.

Incendiary balloons have become a frequent weapon used by terrorists in Hamas-ruled Gaza over the past year. Though no one has yet been killed, the balloons have set fire to thousands of acres of farmland in southern Israel, causing millions of dollars in damage.

Also on Tuesday, a video was published that appeared to show a new mechanism intended to increase the potency of incendiary balloons. The device itself is fitted with a fuse that ignites flammable material after roughly 40 seconds, the time required to reach Israeli territory.

After ignition, the incendiary device falls to the ground and continues to burn for some time, thus increasing the chances of setting off a major fire.

Meanwhile, unrest continued along the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday, with Palestinian sources claiming that 13 rioters suffered from smoke inhalation after IDF soldiers used smoke grenades as a crowd-control measure.