Facing residents' frustration: The IDF rejects claims regarding incendiary kites
The IDF claims that the incendiary kites in the Gaza envelope are not part of Hamas's organized operations. Despite the ongoing phenomenon, the security establishment is attempting to downplay the situation.
Fighting in Gaza: The terrorist organization Hamas continues its attempts to rehabilitate itself and challenge the IDF at the yellow line and deep within Gaza. According to reports from Gaza, the IDF attacked a Hamas facility as well as a terrorist engaged in capacity building and the production of weaponry. The terrorist was killed, and several wounded were evacuated from the scene. The attack was carried out using a drone at the entrance to the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the center of the strip.
In the security establishment and the IDF, they are monitoring the launching of kites towards the Gaza envelope. The current assessment is that this is not an organized and orderly move by Hamas. The assessment is that these are local attempts. The security establishment does not identify attempts to attach explosive devices or incendiary materials to the kites.
For the time being, the instructions of the security establishment are not to touch the kites but to call the police or the security coordinators of the settlements. Security officials believe that, as mentioned, the move is currently unorganized and there is no party in Gaza organizing the event on a large scale or for the purpose of testing alertness and Israeli response.
Earlier, the Gaza Envelope Forum addressed the reality on the ground:
"Silence means containment, and the danger of foreign forces entering the yellow line area and an IDF withdrawal will only increase the threat and weaken the leverage on Hamas. It is forbidden to accept the reality of an enemy right at the fence as a decree of fate. The State of Israel must focus on the mission of defeating Hamas immediately."
A representative of the settlement leaders in the region, Ury Epstein, head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, also expressed a demand to stop the launching of the kites:
"We demand that the IDF act against every kite that crosses into Israeli territory. To locate it and deal with it in time. Not after it has landed. Not in retrospect, in real time."
Epstein, like many others, sees these kites as a weapon in every sense:
"At least 5 kites were found with strings stretching for kilometers. These events must not become a routine that the security establishment learns to live with. A kite that crosses into Israeli territory is an event that requires a response. When there is no response, the message that is passed to the other side is that it is possible to continue."
