Israeli threats leave Gaza children afraid to fly kites

DEIR-AL BALAH

AFP photo.

Parents in Gaza are stopping their children from flying homemade kites, fearing they could be targeted after Israel warned it would intensify military action if more kites crossed the border.

For 10-year-old Ahmed Hamdouna, displaced to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, kite-flying had been one of the few forms of play still available.

His father has now forbidden it.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to play like children everywhere else,” Ahmed told AFP.

Eleven-year-old Yamen al-Mubayyed said he and his friends made kites from wood gathered from destroyed homes, along with paper and string.

With no toys, amusement parks or even a football, he said the kites gave them a rare sense of freedom.

Some families have begun confiscating or destroying the kites.

Akram Abu Shurkh, 30, said his children viewed them as a game, but he feared that merely holding a kite string could put them in danger.

Israel says Hamas is exploiting children and that the kites could pose a security threat, citing incendiary kites and balloons that caused fires on Israeli farmland in 2018. Hamas denies involvement in the recent incidents.

Several kites have crossed into southern Israel in recent days. No explosives were found, though at least one carried a political message, according to AFP.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said authorities would apply “zero tolerance” and treat kites like drones “whether or not they carry explosives.”

Israeli leaders have also warned that those held responsible could be targeted and residents ordered to leave areas from which kites, balloons or drones are launched.