When a kite becomes a threat: What Gaza’s children reveal about the politics of fear

There is something profoundly unsettling about a military power becoming alarmed by children flying kites: In Gaza, where childhood has already been stripped of so many of its ordinary meanings, even a kite has now entered the vocabulary of warfare.

In August 2026, several kites drifted from Gaza toward Israeli communities near the border.

Israel’s own military reported that the kites it recovered carried no suspicious material and posed no danger.

Yet Israeli leaders responded by treating their appearance as a potential act of war.

Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that a balloon would be treated like a kite and a kite like a drone, “with or without explosives.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz subsequently warned that those responsible […]