According to the reports, the Israeli military believes Hamas was behind the launches, which did not carry explosives, and may have been testing how Israel would respond.
“Israel warns Hamas that if the launches toward Israel do not cease immediately, the IDF will take action to intensify targeted operations against those responsible… and will evacuate the population from areas from which kites, drones and balloons are launched,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said Sunday in a joint statement.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement that the kites were “launched from Gaza by children searching for their innocent childhood amid the rubble”.
In a separate statement, the Islamist group accused Israel of using the kites as a “pretext” for airstrikes in central Gaza on Sunday, in which three people were killed according to Gaza’s civil defence rescue service.
The UN spokeswoman highlighted that Sunday’s statement was only the latest in a string of threats.
“We continue to see unacceptable rhetoric coming from the highest level of the Israeli authorities, showing utter contempt for international human rights and humanitarian law, and advocating and inciting violence amounting to atrocity crimes,” she said.