The Israel Defense Forces located four kites over the weekend that crossed the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
One of the kites was identified on Friday in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, adjacent to the northern Gaza Strip. The other three were found the following morning, the IDF said.
“No suspicious items were found on the kites,” the military noted, adding that at no stage did they pose a danger to the public.
Terrorists in Gaza have used incendiary kites in the past to start fires in the northwestern Negev, resulting in severe property and ecological damage.
Uri Epstein, head of Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council—whose jurisdiction borders the northeastern Gaza Strip—was quoted by Israeli Channel 12 broadcaster correspondent Almog Boker as saying, “We demand that the IDF act against every kite that crosses into Israeli territory, locate it and deal with it in real time. Not after it lands. Not after the fact. In real time.”
Palestinians in Gaza began airborne arson attacks on Israel in 2018 that coincided with riots on the border.
Incendiary balloons carrying pre-lit Molotov cocktails were launched as well. These reached longer distances than kites. In one incident in July 2018, a cluster of four balloons was detected in Beersheva, a city located some 40 miles away from Gaza.
By August 2018, the fires set ablaze by the incendiary objects destroyed more than 7,500 acres of agricultural and nature reserve land, and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of bees, along with their honey-producing hives—amounting to millions of shekels in damage.
The arson attacks continued as late as 2021.
The attacks coincided with “Great March of Return” protests, a series of Palestinian riots held along the Gaza border almost every Friday in 2018 and 2019.
Various analyses have assessed that these riots were at least partly conducted to test the readiness of the IDF to respond to border encroachments, as well as to lower the alert level of Israel’s defense establishment against the threat posed by Gaza.
