SAFA - A simple source of happiness for kids and a tiny symbol of life amid destruction, a sheet of paper hanging from a string rises into the sky. Yet Israel now portrays these toys as a threat warranting a military response, including strikes on the areas from which they are launched in a new expression of Israel’s increasingly desperate and distorted mindset.

With Israeli occupation forces having barred children’s toys from entering the Gaza Strip for three years, kites have become one of the few handmade forms of play available to children. 

Made from thin pieces of wood and colorful paper, they offer children a different way to create moments of joy. They often use the string connecting the wooden frame to form designs resembling stars, eyes, the Palestinian flag, or even the Mercedes-Benz logo. A stringed balance and a paper tail help keep the kite steady as it dances in the air.

As the kite climbs dozens of meters into the sky, the child holds on to the end of the string, tied to a small wooden piece in his hand. For as long as the kite remains airborne, the child is briefly lifted out of the reality of war and devastation. But strong winds, combined with the fragile strings available because Israel prohibits the entry of thicker ones, can cause the line to snap sometimes, sending the kites drifting toward the settlements bordering Gaza.

Although Gaza’s residents have long been accustomed to Israel manufacturing pretexts and allegations to justify attacks, few expected Israeli leaders and officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and War Minister Israel Katz, to go as far as targeting a children’s game, attempting to cast it as a military threat and use it to justify further attacks.

Hebrew-language media have also contributed to amplifying the issue and portraying kites as a threat. Channel 12, for instance, published a photograph of a kite caught in a tree after reaching Kibbutz Nahal Oz, along with another image of a kite that had fallen on the grounds of Re’im.

In a threat issued over the matter, Israeli War Minister Israel Katz said that “he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to adopt a policy of “zero containment and zero tolerance” toward kites launched from Gaza.” 

He warned that if the launches continued, forceful measures would be taken to put an end to the phenomenon, declaring that a kite would be treated in the same way as a drone.

In Gaza, activists circulated a video of a child smashing the kites he had been playing with as he cried in distress: “They want to take away the thing I love.” Others turned the episode into an object of satire, mocking Israel’s threats against a children’s toy and circulating fictional statements supposedly issued by the Israeli military spokesman announcing strikes on areas because kites had been launched from them.

Siham Talba sees the threat as an absurd measure with no purpose, arguing that Israel is waging its war through every means available against all segments of the Palestinian people. In her view, the decision targets children and the simple toys through which they try to release some of the pressure and anguish surrounding them.

When Play Becomes an Act of Escape

Talba told Felesteen newspaper, "With Israel blocking the entry of children’s toys into Gaza, children are trying to invent and make their own handmade toys. Kites are among the most important of these. 

A child can spend a long time making one, then tie it to a string and send it soaring into the sky, feeling as though they are free briefly escaping the suffering that closes in on them from every direction.”

The controversy brought to mind Hala, the nine-year-old daughter of Muhannad Sami, who was killed on the fourth day of the Israeli assault, on October 10, 2023. Sami posted a photograph of his daughter holding a kite on his Facebook page, writing: “My daughter was killed before Israeli occupation could stop her from playing with kites.”

Sami told Felesteen newspaper, "My daughter was killed alongside her mother. I had left the house to perform the afternoon prayer at the mosque with my son Ahmad. My little girl lived like other children. She loved going to the sea, flying kites, and playing with them.

She loved drawing the Palestinian flag on her kites. But Israeli occupation killed my daughter Hala, and it continues to kill children while taking away this beautiful source of joy.”

A New Pretext for Attack

Muhammad Shaldan lives in the Dar al-Salam camp, near the Yellow Line, where he has witnessed firsthand how some of the camp’s children cling to this single remaining form of play. Even finding the palm fronds needed to make a kite, let alone the string required to fly it, has become a struggle.

Shaldan told Felesteen, "Israeli occupation is pursuing the same war by other means. Today, children have no other way to play. A kite is simply a toy flown in the air, and any rational person knows that it poses no threat.”

He added that kites are a form of recreation found everywhere, with children flying them along the seashore, inside cities, and on their outskirts. By targeting them, Israeli occupation wants to extinguish everything, even joy. It exploits anything it can to deny Gaza any outlet and to inflict further suffering on the Palestinian people.

As for how the camp’s children respond to the threats, Shaldan said they are innocent and do not understand such language. They only care about playing. That is their way of thinking, a simple mindset that has not descended to the level of the political leaders of Israeli occupation who are planning to kill these children.