Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launch balloons loaded with flammable material toward Israel. Photo: Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

An explosives-laden balloon blew up over an elementary school in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Thursday.

The incident came amid a wave of such attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli news site Mako, the school’s students had been evacuated to a secure area, and there were no injuries in the explosion.

Several children, however, suffered panic attacks.

The Algemeiner reported on Tuesday that Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups had agreed to stop balloon attacks, after a visit from an Egyptian delegation that urged such a step.

A Hamas official told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds that the cessation of balloon attacks would occur in exchange for Israel easing its blockade of Gaza. The Israeli offer to do so was said to have been conveyed to Hamas by the Egyptians.

The balloon launches, however, continued. One landed in Ashkelon shortly after the Al-Quds report, and several fell in the Eshkol Regional Council and the Sdot Negev Regional Council.