By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Gaza parents have been warned to stop their children flying kites in the war-ravaged enclave, after Israel threatened a forceful response if the Hamas militant group revives a tactic of launching incendiary kites over the border.
The popular committees, comprising representatives of local non-governmental organizations and charities that run Gaza displacement camps and shelters, issued the warning in a statement late on Monday.
The announcement was coordinated with Hamas authorities, a source in the militant group said.
“We are working tirelessly on the ground and doing everything possible to stop this practice, not to restrict the childhood of our children, who have already been deprived of the most basic rights to play and live in safety, but to protect their innocent lives,” the statement said.
In 2018, Gazans sent incendiary balloons and kites over the border, causing fires across hundreds of acres of open fields and farmlands, in what they said was in protest at the Israeli blockade of the Hamas-controlled enclave.
KITES SCARE ISRAELI VILLAGERS
In the past month, several kites that were not reported to be carrying incendiary materials were spotted drifting from Gaza into Israel, alarming Israelis who live in the nearby villages, which came under attack in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault that sparked the Gaza war.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas that unless that stopped immediately, “those responsible” for launching kites, balloons or drones toward Israel would be targets of assassination and that areas from which they are sent will be ordered to evacuate.
Umm Mohammed, a mother from Gaza City who spoke with Reuters over a chat app, said she was worried her son could be hurt.
“Every summer, my kid, Ahmed, 10, and the kids in the street fly those kites to entertain themselves, but I will not allow him to, not anymore,” she said.
A senior Israeli defence official said Hamas was trying to provoke Israel by encouraging Gazans to fly kites across the border.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group has complained to ceasefire mediators that “Israel was making fake pretexts to continue the war on Gaza.”
Israel complained to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which oversees the implementation of the 2025 Gaza ceasefire deal, about the kites, according to a second Israeli official.
“All militant activity in Gaza must stop, including the flying of kites. We have conveyed this message directly through the established mechanism,” an official of the Board of Peace told Reuters.
“Israel, too, must comply with the ceasefire; military action cannot extend beyond responding to genuine and imminent threats,” he added.
An October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting but it didn’t end Israeli attacks.
An Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian on Tuesday in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave. The Israeli military said it had targeted a militant, without further information.
Later, another Israeli airstrike killed at least three people in the vicinity of a school housing displaced families in Jabalia in northern Gaza, medics said. The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment.
More than 1,280 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect last October, according to Gazan health officials, while the Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo. Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
