Gaza ‘terror kites’ inflame Israeli tensions
Low-cost aerial weapons threaten new conflict with Hamas as Prince William begins tour of region
FOR years Israel spared no effort to end rocket smuggling into the Gaza Strip, while creating a sophisticated anti-missile system to intercept those that ended up in Hamas’s hands.
But its army is scrambling for a response to new Palestinian weapons that cost pennies to make: flaming kites and helium-inflated condoms sent over the fortified border to torch Israeli farmlands. Israel calls them “terror kites”. Hundreds have been launched in recent months, burning thousands of acres of farmland. The “kite war” now threatens to start a real war neither side wants.
Gaza Palestinians have always been fond of kites. A few years ago, they set a record by flying more than 13,000 of them simultaneously. Using them as flame delivery systems, however, is a by-product of protests since March at Gaza’s border in which Israeli troops have killed dozens of Palestinians as some tried to breach the fence.
The protesters began constructing the simple kites in makeshift workshops. Several sticks are tied together and covered in plastic sheeting. Mesh carrying burning fuel is attached, and the kite’s string is cut once the winds carry it over Israel. Others use inflated condoms and balloons carrying burning rags or Molotov cocktails. The inflated condoms are tied together to better support their blazing freight.
Israel is now installing detectors along the border to relay the coordinates of the kites, balloons and inflated condoms so a drone can intercept them before they cross over.
Terrain along the border is pockmarked with black spots of scorched hillsides and charred palm trees. In Nir Am, near Gaza’s north-east border, the fires have inched dangerously close to adjacent train tracks and a gas station.
Residents and visiting firefighting crews are on standby to deploy at a mo- ment’s notice. A replanting drive has begun to repair damaged land, but conservationists have seen scorched porcupines, snakes, turtles, lizards and other rodents and insects, as well as their feeding grounds, and birds along the border peck at charred carcasses. The recent flare-up comes ahead of the Duke of Cambridge’s visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, which starts today. He will be the first member of the Royal family to make an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza and which fought three devastating wars with Israel over the past decade, has encouraged the
‘There is pressure in Israel domestically for a response because there is no patience left’
protests and says its members participate in them. The group is conducting a delicate balancing act in which it hopes to avoid an all-out war with Israel on the one hand, while trying to force concessions on the blockade in place since Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier in 2006. It is a calculation that could misfire at any moment.
Israel has carried out air strikes on Hamas targets, which along with the smaller militant group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have fired mortars and rockets in two brief rounds of fighting since the marches began.
The Egyptians, who had in the past mediated ceasefires between Hamas and Israel, have made it known to the Islamists that they will not tolerate an escalation, but have decided to temporarily open their Rafah crossing with Gaza to travellers. “What’s different today is that there is no expectation on the part of Hamas that if there were a big war today that it would result in Gaza or Hamas being in a better position in terms of the blockade,” said Nathan Thrall, the International Crisis Group’s Arab-Israeli project director.
Hamas “has a mutual interest with Israel, neither side wants a war”, said Alon Eviatar, a former Israeli military intelligence officer and an analyst.
“But the situation is becoming dangerous. The deterioration is increasing from week to week. There is pressure domestically in Israel for a response because there is no patience left.”