Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF on Sunday to act “immediately and forcefully” against any additional kites launched toward Israel from the Gaza Strip.
“We view every launch as an act of war in every sense and are committed to the absolute defense of Israeli settlements,” Katz said in a Sunday statement, after a fifth kite was located in Kibbutz Kfar Aza over the weekend. “A balloon is treated like a kite, and a kite is treated like a drone, with or without explosives.”
“We will not allow a return to the reality of before October 7, and anyone who organizes, launches, or enables the launches will be dealt with immediately and with full severity.”
Over the past week, the IDF identified at least six kites that crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. One crossed at the beginning of last week, two more crossed during the week, and five additional kites crossed in the past 24 hours, on Saturday.
According to military sources, the kites are being sent over by “12- and 13-year-old teenagers, who themselves are being operated by other parties, likely Hamas operatives.”
Residents of Western Negev communities strongly criticized the IDF for not responding to the kite incidents, citing previous events. Years before October 7, Hamas established balloon and kite units to carry incendiary materials that landed in Israeli territory and ignited fields and forests, including infrastructure and homes.
Soldiers serving in the IDF’s Gaza Division also claimed they had not been briefed on the issue and had not received organized information regarding operational procedures for such incidents, amid concerns that the kites could be booby-trapped.
An official military source told Walla that the IDF “is not underestimating the threat, is monitoring it and treating every incident seriously, in order to understand who is operating them, when it happens and where they could fall.”
Kites increase as IDF waits to see if it ‘becomes a trend’
The source acknowledged an increase of four kites in the past 24 hours.
“We need to wait and see if this becomes a trend, and then steps will be considered accordingly,” he said.
Meanwhile, the IDF Southern Command emphasized that regardless of the kite issue, which has so far not received an operational response through either defensive measures or retaliation, 13 Hamas operatives were eliminated over the past week, including senior field commanders.
The IDF said the Hamas field commanders and operatives were eliminated deep inside Gaza and along the Yellow Line as part of efforts to thwart hostile terrorist activity, in accordance with the policy set by the political leadership.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that a kite was identified yesterday in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, and that during searches conducted by forces in the area this morning, three additional kites were located.
“No suspicious findings were located on the kites,” the statement said.
According to assessments, the kites crossed the border from the Gaza Strip. “At no point was there a danger to the public,” it was clarified.
The spokesperson also added that “the IDF continues to maintain continuous contact with the communities.”
Returning to pre-October 7
Uri Epstein, head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, said in an interview with 103FM Radio that after October 7, the burden of proof lies with the military and the state, and that residents’ trust in the system is already not high.
“This brings back the feelings and the déjà vu from the period before October 7. We are returning to the feeling that this is just a kite and what happened before,” Epstein said. “Hamas, after almost three years, has not been dismantled; it still controls two million residents, and it still has the same number of operatives. People are asking: ‘What is happening here? Are we returning exactly to the same patterns?’”
“This is no longer a localized incident; this is a phenomenon, and it needs to be investigated and dealt with.”
“The problem is not whether there was explosive material on a kite that landed or not; the question is whether the security system can identify a kite that crosses in time and respond in time. The ability to rule out that it has an explosive charge is currently a capability that exists only in hindsight,” Epstein said.
“What we expect from the military is that it will have the ability to respond in real time and also report in real time. Currently, the people finding these kites are residents; they update the military, and then the military arrives and checks.”
