Palestinians in the Gaza Strip launch balloons loaded with flammable material toward Israel. Photo: Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

Israel will soon be accused of war crimes for “killing Palestinians” who were simply “flying kites.” You heard it here first. What you won’t hear is that these kites are actually a component of one of the deadliest weapons in modern warfare.

Yes, really.

Hamas (remember Hamas?) is still armed, still controls central Gaza, and is still carrying out terror attacks against Israel. Its troops habitually cross the “Yellow Line” in violation of ceasefire agreements, and these aren’t mere adventures — Hamas is testing: observing IDF procedures, probing defenses, and measuring reaction times. Just like the lead up to the massacre of Oct. 7.

And now … Hamas has resumed its kite and balloon program.

Kites, Balloons, and Fiber-Optic Drones

Hamas used explosive kites and balloons as cross-border terror weapons going back to 2018. Thousands such projectiles ignited farmland, damaged Israeli communities, and created distractions to assist Hamas operatives while they tried to breach the border fence.

Since Hamas resumed the program this month, kites have landed in several Gaza border communities including Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Israeli residents recognize the pattern, and are raising the alarm.

So far the projectiles appear to be unarmed — the Board of Peace, the body responsible for eventual reconstruction in Gaza, suggests the kites are mere recreational items, the sort that “could be made by any child.” By contrast, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz sees the kites as a test of Israeli defenses.

Yet one absolutely chilling detail should stop everyone in their tracks: Four of the recent kites had strings that stretch for miles.

Sound familiar? It should.

Ukraine innovated battlefield use of the “fiber optic drone”: a remote control weapon that is impervious to radio jamming because its signal comes through an ultra-thin physical cable — stretching for miles all the way back to its operator. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror organization that effectively controls Lebanon, has already begun imitating this weapon to devastating effect against IDF soldiers.

Hamas has never before launched kites with miles long strings. In fact, nobody in their right mind does so anywhere — unless they’re practicing launching a fiber optic drone.

The fiber optic drone is already one of modern warfare’s most devastating weapons, inflicting enormous damage on Russian and Ukrainian forces, but this time, instead of soldiers, the target will be Israeli civilian communities.

International Law

The United Nations and other bodies accused Israel of “war crimes” in 2019 for using military force against “civilians” who were launching incendiary and explosive kites and balloons. In a bizarre parody of international law, the UN claimed that “for lethal force to be permissible, the victim must pose an imminent threat to life or limb.”

To use “technical” language, that is: Just. Plain. Wrong.

Countries have an inviolate right to defend against attacks (UN Charter Article 51) and launching explosives and incendiaries is an attack. Attaching a kite to your weapon doesn’t change that.

However, there are strict limitations on how an army may react toward civilians, which is what the United Nations was presumably alluding to in its faulty accusation. After all, though Hamas launches weaponized kites, so do many unaffiliated youth in Gaza. S, aren’t they civilians?

In a word: no.

Anyone who initiates attacks as part of a war immediately loses their civilian status. It doesn’t matter whether they have a uniform, a weapon or a rank, their age, their lifestyle, or literally anything else — if you’re attacking, then you’re not a civilian. Period.

“Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.”
 First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, §51(3)).

This has to be the case — let’s think about it:

Imagine if attackers could simply remove their uniforms, or enlist community members, and thereby become legally immune from any response. Anyone they attack, no matter how well trained or armed, would be legally obligated to … well, to die. Really.

That’s why you lose your “civilian” status the moment you go on a battlefield and attack soldiers. But what happens if you invade a community and specifically target (actual) civilians?

Well, that makes you a war criminal.

“Making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack is … a war crime.” (First Additional Protocol §85(3)(a) and §85(5)). 

This rule doesn’t refer to accidental harm to civilians, which is tragic but inevitable in war, as detailed in numerous sections of the Geneva conventions (i.e. First Additional Protocol §51(5)(b)). But specifically targeting civilians on purpose is never allowed, and that is exactly what these explosive kites are meant to do.

Israel’s response

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz warned this week:

Israel warns Hamas that if the launches toward Israel do not stop immediately, the IDF will step up targeted operations against those responsible for the launches and evacuate populations from areas from which kites, drones and balloons are launched.

So far Israel has restrained itself to firm warnings and limited strikes on Hamas infrastructure. However, when Israel tolerates habitual ceasefire violations, probing attacks and creeping escalation for too long, it leads to disaster.

We all learned that on Oct. 7.

Israel will soon be forced to make good on its warning, and that when it does, the embattled country will face all manner of malicious accusations that bizarrely twist international law into a veritable work of fiction.

We learned that on Oct. 7 as well.

Daniel Pomerantz is the CEO of RealityCheck, an organization dedicated to deepening public conversation through robust research studies and public speaking.