STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In 2018, I was reporting from inside Gaza with our colleague Daniel Estrin, and we met a young man holding a kite. He was one of the Gazans back then hoping to use kites to fly incendiary devices across the border into Israel. That bit of history became relevant recently when the wind blew several kites across the border. Israel says it will treat kites crossing the border as an act of war, whether they are armed or not. Here's NPR's Anas Baba.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: For 11-year-old Ezz Omar (ph), heading down to the beach to fly his handmade kite used to be a simple escape from the war in Gaza. But this weekend, a few stray kites blew across the border into southern Israel and triggered a high-level alert there.
EZZ OMAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: "They banned everything," he says, "even this kite we fly when we are bored. Is this a weapon they are scared of?"
The boy's anger is fueled by a dangerous new reality. Israeli officials declared that any kite launched from Gaza will be treated as an act of war and also threatened to target launch areas and evacuate entire neighborhoods. With 70% of Gaza already under Israeli military control, the threat of mass displacement hit families like shock waves. Parents across Gaza did not wait to see what would happen. Fifty-five-year-old Emad Al-Amour (ph) immediately gathered his grandchildren's kites.
EMAD AL-AMOUR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: "We gathered all the kites and burned them because the situation became terrifying," he says. "It's better to deprive our kids of a game they love than expose them to danger."
Israel has pointed to the history of Hamas launching incendiary balloons and kites used to burn farmland across the border back in 2018. Former Israeli military intelligence officer Michael Milstein says the response also reflects deep trauma from the Hamas-led attack of 2023.
MICHAEL MILSTEIN: The traumatic memory of October the 7 is still very fresh, and they do not consider the kites only as kites, but as a kind of threat.
BABA: But Milstein argues that treating kites as a military threat highlights a glaring strategic void.
MILSTEIN: It shows to Israel that we must rely on diplomatic and political efforts and not only on military response, bombs or attacks.
BABA: And so while peace remains stalled, the kites stay grounded and summer in Gaza is caught in the crossfire.
Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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