Four kites discovered near Gaza border communities since Friday have shaken residents and revived painful memories of October 7, but initial IDF assessments indicate they were launched by children and teenagers acting on instructions from Hamas commanders, with no explosives or incendiary devices attached.
The kites, believed to have been sent from northern Gaza, carried messages in Arabic. One bore the phrase “We will never calm down,” apparently intended as a psychological message.
The IDF Southern Command is closely monitoring the phenomenon and says it understands the effect on residents’ sense of security. At the same time, security officials are stressing that the launches should not be confused with a concrete military threat. Initial examinations found no explosives, charges or sabotage devices attached to the kites.
Officials said children and teenagers appear to have been launching them under Hamas direction. The Southern Command is also monitoring the possibility that Hamas could adopt fiber-optic drone tactics used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, though no evidence of such activity has so far been found in Gaza.
Fiber-optic drones are considered particularly difficult to counter because they are guided through a physical cable rather than a radio link. The IDF has been studying the threat from the northern front in recent weeks in preparation for the possibility that Hamas might copy the method.
Security officials say the operational reality in Gaza is now fundamentally different from the situation before October 7. According to the IDF, Israeli forces currently maintain broad operational control over roughly 63% to 64% of the Gaza Strip and enjoy extensive freedom of action.
Kite found near the Gaza border
Following several relatively quiet days in the sector, the Southern Command has also stepped up targeted strikes. The IDF says 13 terrorists were killed in precision air and ground strikes over the past week, including a company commander.
The military says the “yellow line” remains a firm operational boundary and that anyone crossing the perimeter is either fired upon immediately or detained.
At least four kites were found near Kibbutz Nahal Oz over the past two days. Another carrying Arabic writing was discovered nearby on Tuesday, while one was found in Moshav Shuva a week earlier. At least seven kites have been found in Gaza border communities since October 7.
Residents are not dismissing the phenomenon as harmless. Similar tactics were used in the past, when kites without incendiary material were initially sent across the border to gauge where they would land before later versions carried flammable materials that caused fires.
For communities along the Gaza border, even an apparently harmless kite crossing from Gaza into Israeli airspace is enough to bring back memories of a threat that once evolved into something much more dangerous.