WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Balloons used to smuggle cigarettes from Belarus have been reported crossing into Polish airspace for a third night in a row.
Polish authorities on Monday said the “hybrid incidents” were part of the threat to the country's eastern border posed by Russia's ally Belarus.
“The Belarusian side made another attempt at reconnaissance and checking the reaction of the Polish air defense systems,” the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces wrote in a report on X into the the incidents from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1.
Armed forces spokesman Jacek Goryszewski said there were more balloon incidents in the first weeks of 2026 compared to the beginning of 2025. He said the increased frequency could be caused by a political decision in Minsk. or by smugglers adapting to stronger border defenses by Poland.
Poland's military said the recent incidents posed “no threat to the security of the Polish airspace”. However, temporary restrictions for civil aviation were imposed on part of the airspace over the Podlaskie region bordering Belarus.
The Belarusian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Poland and the Baltic countries have accused Belarus and Russia of conducting a hybrid war against the West, whose elements include fomenting a migration crisis on the European Union’s eastern border, sabotage and espionage as well as the use of balloons smuggling cigarettes.
Polish authorities are on high alert since Russian drones entered Polish airspace in September, while an explosion on a rail line carrying passenger trains in November was blamed on Moscow.
On Jan. 22, the Operational Command of the Polish Army reported “increased activity by small unmanned aerial vehicles operating over the Polish-Belarusian border” it had observed the previous night. At the time, Poland summoned the Belarusian envoy to Warsaw, arguing that “such incidents are part of the hybrid operations undertaken by the Belarusian side, aimed at destabilizing the security situation and testing the Polish airspace defense system.”
“The charge d'affairs couldn't answer to us about the role of the Belarusian side in this, but we are doubting the fact that the Belarusian side has no knowledge or impact on such a number of these actions,” Maciej Wewiór, a spokesman for the Polish Foreign Affairs Ministry, told the Polish Press Agency.
In December, Lithuania declared a national emergency over security risks posed by meteorological balloons sent from Belarus that had violated its airspace. The balloons had forced Lithuania to repeatedly shut down its main airport in Vilnius, stranding thousands of people.
Lithuanian authorities said the balloons were part of a “Belarusian hybrid attack” while Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko denounced Lithuania’s move to close its border in response as a “mad scam” and part of a “hybrid war” against his country.
FILE - Servicemen guard at a section of Poland - Belarus border barrier near the Polowce-Pieszczatka, Poland, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski, file)
CAIRO (AP) — Before the war, the Rafah border crossing was Gaza's only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel. It was shuttered when Israeli troops seized it in May 2024.
On Monday, the crossing with Egypt reopened in a long-awaited step of the ceasefire deal in the two-year Israel-Hamas war. And though the reopening was mostly symbolic — only small numbers of people are allowed to cross initially — it provides a glimmer of hope for Palestinians seeking to leave the war-ravaged strip and those wishing to return home.
The Rafah crossing played a key role for the people of Gaza before the war, handling the movement of people and some types of cargo. But after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking the war, Egypt tightened its restrictions.
The reopening is expected to make it easier for Palestinians from Gaza to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family. The initial numbers allowed to cross, however, are limited to only 50 medical evacuees from Gaza, along with two people escorting them, while 50 Palestinians who fled Gaza during the war can return, according to Israeli and Egyptian officials.
That falls far short of the roughly 20,000 sick and wounded people Gaza’s Health Ministry says need treatment abroad and represents only a fraction of the more than 30,000 Palestinians registered in Cairo to return home, according to an embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing.
Israeli officials have given no indication when a full reopening could happen. They've said crossing restrictions are expected to ease over time if the reopening is successful.
“We hope this will close off Israel’s pretexts and open the crossing,” said Abdel-Rahman Radwan, a Gaza City resident whose mother is a cancer patient and requires treatment outside Gaza.
With much of Gaza turned to rubble, the United Nations has said the Palestinian territory’s population of over 2 million people needs a massive influx of fuel, food, medicine and tents.
How quickly the crossing can scale up operations to allow the passage of goods is likely to have a major bearing on Gaza’s reconstruction.
Also among the unknowns is the expected arrival of the new Palestinian committee of administrators appointed to govern day-to-day affairs in Gaza under the international “Board of Peace” proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The committee remains in Cairo, without Israeli authorization to enter.
Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt has been opposed to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in that country.
The Gaza side of the Rafah crossing was heavily damaged during the war.
With the current ceasefire deal calling for Hamas to have no role in running Gaza, it’s unclear who will operate the territory’s side of the Rafah crossing once the war ends. Currently, an EU mission is running the crossing with assistance from plainclothes Palestinian security officers — an arrangement similar to when Rafah reopened limitedly during a brief ceasefire at the start of 2025.
Israel has said it will run security checks on Palestinians, once they're inside the zone under the Israeli military's control.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said there would be no reconstruction in Gaza without demilitarization, a stance that could make Israel’s control over the Rafah crossing a key point of leverage. U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner said last month that postwar construction would first focus on building “workforce housing” in Rafah, the enclave's southernmost city, near the crossing.
Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy in Cairo, Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
A crane enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
Palestinian children receive donated food at a community kitchen in Nuseirat, in central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
