Incendiary balloon

[4][5] Austrian imperial forces, who were besieging Venice, attempted to deploy approximately 200 paper hot air balloons.

[7] During the period of 1944-1945, in the midst of World War II, Japan initiated the launch of approximately 9,300 Fu-Go balloon bombs targeted at North America.

[6][13] The deaths of six civilians were the only fatalities caused by fire balloons on American soil during World War II.

[15][16] The 1954–1955 WS-124A Flying Cloud program tested high-altitude balloons for the delivery of weapons of mass destruction, but they were found infeasible because of their inaccuracy.

[17] Since the beginning of the 2018 Gaza border protests, Palestinian militants have been launching incendiary kites at Israel as a form of agro-terrorism.

[29][30] In response to these incendiary attacks, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing in July 2018, but later reopened it after a few months of relative calm.

[31] By the end of 2018, over 7,000 acres of land had been burned as a result of incendiary balloon attack, causing millions of shekels in damages, according to Israeli officials.

[32] The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attempted to combat these incendiary devices by deploying small, remote-controlled drones with knives on their wings to cut the guide lines of the kites.

[34] In February 2020, a new laser weapon system known as the Light Blade (or Lahav) was tested operationally along the Gaza border to combat kites and balloons.