{"id":594497,"date":"2026-08-24T13:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594497\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T13:28:12","slug":"israel-accused-of-using-kites-as-pretext-to-justify-escalating-gaza-attacks-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594497\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel accused of using kites as pretext to justify escalating Gaza attacks | Politics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel has threatened Palestinian groups against launching \u2018kites, drones, and balloons\u2019 from the war-torn enclave.<\/p>\n

Published On 24 Aug 202624 Aug 2026<\/p>\n

A four-year-old child was among three Palestinians killed in Israeli air attacks in central Gaza on Sunday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to escalate attacks over the alleged launching of paper kites from the war-torn enclave.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Israel fired missiles<\/a> at a warehouse in az-Zawayda, reducing it to rubble, and then carried out strikes near Salah al-Din Street, killing four-year-old Muhammad Abdel Salam Taha.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Israeli drone attacks also targeted southern Khan Younis and a tent sheltering displaced people at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, resulting in more casualties.<\/p>\n

Standing amid the destruction in az-Zawayda, witness Abu Ahmed expressed widespread despair over the relentless violence. \u201cThere is no ceasefire; there is nothing. We want solutions; we want to live in peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The deadly bombardment comes as Palestinian and Israeli affairs experts warn that the government is fabricating a security crisis around children\u2019s toys to derail ceasefire agreements, enforce demographic changes and ensure Netanyahu\u2019s political survival.<\/p>\n

After the attack, Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement on Sunday threatening severe retaliation over the toys. They also threatened the forced displacement of Palestinians from areas \u201cused as launch sites for kites, drones and balloons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Israeli soldier inspects a kite in the Gaza envelope, allegedly launched from the Strip [Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no return to the state of affairs prior to October 7 [2023],\u201d the joint statement said, adding that Israel will not allow Hamas or any other group in Gaza \u201cto threaten our communities again and compromise our citizens\u2019 sense of security\u201d.<\/p>\n

The attacks came despite the Israeli military acknowledging that the recovered kites contained no explosives and were simply flown by children. While the joint statement cited \u201ckites, drones, and balloons\u201d, military inspections confirmed finding only 10 paper kites \u2013 all completely free of explosives and flown by children in displacement camps.<\/p>\n

Palestinian political analyst Hussam Shaheen told Al Jazeera that claims regarding drones being launched from Gaza are fabricated. \u201cIt is a false and baseless assertion; it is non-existent. It has been denied, and there is no evidence whatsoever to prove any connection to drones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Adel Shadid, an expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the threat is entirely manufactured by Hebrew media under the direction of the military establishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear that there was an intention to invest in and use these paper kites as a pretext, and the whole issue might be fabricated,\u201d Shadid said.<\/p>\n

Nuclear weapons versus paper kites<\/p>\n

Analysts highlighted the absurdity of Israel\u2019s claims regarding the toys.<\/p>\n

Palestinian political analyst Hussam Shaheen told Al Jazeera that the kites are merely a flimsy excuse to avoid political commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inconceivable that a state claiming to be a great power possessing a nuclear arsenal considers a paper kite flown by a Palestinian child a security threat,\u201d Shaheen said.<\/p>\n

He further noted the logistical impossibility of the Israeli narrative, pointing out that displaced Palestinians are flying these kites in camps surrounded by invading forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy percent of the Strip is still under the control of the Israeli army, so how can one talk about paper kites penetrating all this space and posing a security threat?\u201d Shaheen added.<\/p>\n

Electoral survival<\/p>\n

The sudden escalation coincides with Israel\u2019s rejection<\/a> of a United States-backed 15-point ceasefire roadmap that Hamas had already accepted, prompting experts to link the violence directly to the upcoming October elections.<\/p>\n

Shaheen highlighted how the political establishment relies on violence for votes, noting that Palestinians are historically used as an electoral card.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpinion polls indicate that Netanyahu\u2019s chances of forming a government have become non-existent,\u201d Shadid told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Experts emphasise that inflating the threat of paper kites serves a darker strategic goal of reshaping demographic realities on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu does not need to invent a major issue out of the paper kites; rather, the primary goal is pushing the Palestinians towards displacement and dodging any political commitment,\u201d Shaheen told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Suleiman Bisharat, a political researcher, explained that the government deliberately uses these weak excuses to instil a psychological state of fear within Israeli society, rallying domestic support for disproportionate force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that we might consider these excuses superficial and weak, but ultimately \u2026 Israel ties them to the security equation,\u201d Bisharat told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Israeli Defence Minister described the launching of the kites as an \u2018act of war\u2019 [Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has threatened Palestinian groups against launching \u2018kites, drones, and balloons\u2019 from the war-torn enclave. Published On 24…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[159885,49,50,1155,85,46,44,47,43,48,238],"class_list":["post-594497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-armed-groups","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-gaza","tag-human-rights","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}