ISRAEL has threatened intensified attacks and forced displacement in Gaza over a couple of children’s kites.
Over the past month, several kites have been spotted drifting from Gaza into Israel, with Defence minister Israel Katz saying on Monday that they would be treated as a potential security threat.
“A balloon and a kite shall be treated the same as a drone – with or without explosives,” he said in a statement.
While Israeli authorities voiced concerns that paper kites could carry explosives across the border, the military admitted that kites found in a kibbutz didn’t contain dangerous material, according to the Times of Israel.
As a result, Hamas has accused Israel of using the kites row to justify further attacks against Palestinians.
“These threats, based on fabricated pretexts, are an attempt to justify the continuation of the aggression and violations against our people, ultimately threatening children in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
After evacuation warnings by Israel’s military, a strike hit a building in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
One family was unable to flee and a four-year-old child was killed, according to Awda Hospital, where he was taken.
His mother and sister were wounded.
There was no comment from the Israeli military.
Israeli strikes hit three other buildings across the territory after residents said they received evacuation warnings.
Some people sprinted away, with mothers carrying children, while others moved amid the rubble in wheelchairs or with canes.
Smoke rose over the already devastated landscape.
Israel’s military said it carried out strikes in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City and in Deir al-Balah after issuing warnings, targeting what it described as two Hamas weapons storage facilities inside mosques.
The military did not provide evidence but said the facilities contained dozens of “dozens of Kalashnikov rifles, magazines and additional military equipment”.
An earlier Israeli strike on a tent in Deir al-Balah killed a man, according to Al-Aqsa Hospital, where his body was taken.
Israel’s military said it killed a militant affiliated with Hamas’ special forces unit.
A man was killed and five others were wounded in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the casualties.
And Israeli tank fire hit an area east of Khan Younis, killing a 10-year-old girl, according to the hospital, where her body was taken.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strike in Khan Younis and said it was not aware of the incident with the child.
Israel has continued to carry out targeted killings in the week since a US delegation met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to push last year’s ceasefire deal forward.
US negotiator Jared Kushner asked Mr Netanyahu to draw down Israel’s attacks in Gaza, a person familiar with the meeting said last week, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief journalists.
Israel has announced strikes on six of the seven days since that meeting.
