{"id":263822,"date":"2026-08-25T10:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/263822\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T10:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:16:12","slug":"israeli-defence-minister-threatens-crackdown-on-kite-flying-in-gaza-saying-they-will-be-treated-the-same-as-a-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/263822\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli defence minister threatens crackdown on kite flying in Gaza saying they will be \u2018treated the same as a drone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Israel has <\/a>threatened to shoot down kites sent across its border from Gaza, saying they will be treated \u201cthe same as a drone\u201d despite admitting there is no evidence they contain explosives.<\/p>\n

Over the past month, several kites have been spotted drifting from Gaza into Israel, sparking alarm in Israeli villages that were attacked by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 assault.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> on Sunday warned that those responsible for launching the kites would become targets of assassination unless they were halted immediately. The areas that the kites were launched from would also be asked to evacuate, he said. <\/p>\n

His warning came on the same day that an Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians on central Gaza on Sunday, including a four-year-old child.<\/p>\n

\"KitesKites are now being treated as military threats, according to Israeli officials (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Defence minister Israel Katz said on Monday that any kites<\/a> or balloons crossing into Israeli territory would be treated as a potential security threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cA balloon and a kite shall be treated the same as a drone \u2014 with or without explosives,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hamas<\/a> has accused Israel of using the row to justify further attacks and threats against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese threats, based on fabricated pretexts, are an attempt to justify the continuation of the aggression and violations against our people, ultimately threatening children in the Gaza Strip,\u201d Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem said.<\/p>\n

While Israeli authorities have voiced concern that the paper kites could carry explosives across the border, military inspections of four kites recovered in the area earlier this week found that they did not contain dangerous material, according to theTimes of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe aftermath of an Israeli strike in Gaza on Sunsay (AP)<\/p>\n

Qassem called on the Trump administration<\/a> and the Gaza Board of Peace<\/a> to pressure Israel to stop what he described as continued aggression against civilians.<\/p>\n

In Israel however, officials have continued to treat the kites as airborne security threats. <\/p>\n

Speaking on a visit to Nir Oz, one of the communities targeted in the October 7 attacks<\/a>, Israeli president Isaac Herzog said the country \u201ccannot underestimate any sign or any concern from border residents\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cResidents no longer need to stand in front of the border and ask themselves the meaning of everything that flies in the sky. This is the responsibility of the state. To see, to know, to prevent, and to defend,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Israeli president emphasised that he cannot \u201cunderestimate any sign or any concern from border residents\u201d (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also the responsibility of the international community, the member countries of the Board of Peace, to internalise and understand this principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, incendiary balloons and kites sent over the border caused fires across hundreds of acres of open fields and farmlands, in what Gazans said was in protest at the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-controlled enclave.<\/p>\n

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) has expressed concern over Israel\u2019s targeting of kites, saying it is \u201can attempt to manufacture a political and military pretext\u201d to facilitate a \u201creturn to genocidal war and forced displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kite-flyingKite-flying remains a popular activity among children in Gaza (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Gazans say that the kite flying remains one of the few pastimes left for children in the enclave\u2019s sprawling, overcrowded displacement camps. Much of the enclave was reduced to rubble during Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Umm Mohammed, a \u200bmother from Gaza City , told Reuters that she was worried her son could be hurt.<\/p>\n

“Every summer, my kid, Ahmed, 10, and the kids in the street fly those \u200bkites to entertain themselves, but I will not allow him to, not anymore,” \u200bshe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2252,72567,4014,72571,65269,177,6461,72564,2718,21522,2254,5084,6132,72572,12624,37,497,72569,71613,49,816,65774,72568,498,7888,3351,72570,72565,36,72566],"class_list":["post-263822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-aid","tag-amputee","tag-bombardment","tag-childhood","tag-civilian-life","tag-conflict","tag-disability","tag-displacement-camp","tag-forced-displacement","tag-gaza-city","tag-gaza-strip","tag-horizontal","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-injured-child","tag-internally-displaced-people","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-kite-making","tag-kites","tag-middle-east","tag-middle-east-conflict","tag-northern-gaza","tag-october-7-war","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian","tag-refugee","tag-temporary-shelter","tag-tent","tag-war","tag-war-injuries"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}