A warning from Israel that it could remove civilians from parts of Gaza where kites are launched has drawn a sharp rebuke from the United Nations, which called the language from Israeli leaders “unacceptable rhetoric”.
“On the threat of expulsion due to children’s kite flying, I hope we can all agree that this is outrageous,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
Israel has cautioned Hamas that it is prepared to escalate action in Gaza over what it said were launches of kites, drones and balloons toward Israeli territory. Hamas has denied the allegation.
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement that the kites were “launched from Gaza by children searching for their innocent childhood amid the rubble”.
Israeli media said four kites were discovered in communities close to the Gaza border on Saturday and that the army shot down another on Sunday, taking the number recovered over recent days to about 10.
Those reports said the Israeli military assessed Hamas was behind the launches, which were not carrying explosives, and that the activity may have been intended to gauge Israel’s reaction.
Thick smoke rises over Deir al-Bala after Israeli forces detonated explosives at civilian homes
The episodes have stirred echoes of earlier years, when incendiary kites and balloons sent from Gaza ignited fires across agricultural areas in southern Israel.
“Israel warns Hamas that if the launches towards Israel do not cease immediately, the IDF will take action to intensify targeted operations against those responsible… and will evacuate the population from areas from which kites, drones and balloons are launched,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement on Sunday.
Hamas, in turn, said Israel was using the kites as a “pretext” for air strikes in central Gaza on Sunday that killed three people, according to Gaza’s civil defence rescue service.
Ms Shamdasani said the statement issued on Sunday followed a pattern of similar warnings.
“We continue to see unacceptable rhetoric coming from the highest level of the Israeli authorities, showing utter contempt for international human rights and humanitarian law, and advocating and inciting violence amounting to atrocity crimes,” she said.
Israeli settler with army escort smashes Palestinian monument
Knesset member Zvi Sukkot of the Otzma Yehudit party during the Jerusalem Day celebrations in May
In a separate incident in the occupied West Bank, a far-right Israeli lawmaker was filmed smashing a Palestinian memorial with a sledgehammer while accompanied by soldiers — an act later criticised by the Israeli military and condemned by politicians.
Video shared online showed Zvi Sukkot, a Knesset member who is also a settler and activist, striking a monument in the Palestinian village of Madama in the northern West Bank. The memorial honoured what the inscription described as “martyrs”, and soldiers could be seen nearby.
“A few days ago, I demanded that the military take action to remove the monuments commemorating terrorists in the murderers’ villages of Madama and Burin. Unfortunately, they remained in place. So I went there myself and took action to remove them,” Mr Sukkot wrote on Facebook, posting video of the demolition.
Asked about the incident, the Israeli military told AFP that Mr Sukkot and aides had carried out a “tour” in the area “with security provided by IDF soldiers who had been diverted from their operational activities for this purpose”.
“Contrary to the agreed-upon coordination, the participants acted deceptively and manipulatively, without authorisation, departing entirely from the approved framework, and began demolishing one of the monuments in Madama,” it said.
The army said soldiers alerted their commanders, who instructed them to halt what was happening, and that “the participants were quickly escorted out of the village”.
Calling the conduct “with the utmost severity”, the military said Mr Sukkot’s actions amounted to “a misuse of the protection provided by security forces to act entirely outside the scope of the approved framework”.
Israeli settlers and their children attack journalists
Also in the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked AFP journalists covering tensions with Palestinians, leaving at least five people injured, according to the reporters and medics.
A three-person AFP team travelled to the village of Jannatah near Bethlehem to report on Israeli activists who make solidarity visits to Palestinians who say they face harassment by settlers, after a road in the area was recently blocked.
Following an altercation between settlers and the activists, the Israeli military ordered journalists to depart what it described as a “closed military zone”. As they were leaving, two more vehicles carrying settlers arrived, the journalists said.
They reported that settlers — many of them children — hurled stones at journalists and activists. One AFP journalist said he dodged a thrown stone, but was then struck on the chin by a child settler wielding a stick, causing minor bleeding.
When the AFP team returned, they found both of their parked cars had been damaged: rear windshields shattered and tyres punctured.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said five people received treatment for injuries, and AFP journalists said they saw at least one Israeli activist transported in a Palestinian ambulance.
Netanyahu defends military
Responding to Mr Sukkot’s actions, Mr Netanyahu said the army “is the sovereign authority in Judea and Samaria”, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.
“Taking the law into one’s own hands, especially when it involves public figures, is a reprehensible practice that prevents the IDF from focusing on its missions of combatting terrorism and incitement to violence,” he said in a statement.
The filmed destruction of the memorial comes as Israel heads toward elections on 27 October, and it also prompted condemnation from Gadi Eisenkot, who has emerged as Mr Netanyahu’s main challenger.
“Zvi Sukkot’s behaviour is a disgrace to anyone who presumes to represent the public and be a leader,” Mr Eisenkot wrote on X.
“Mr Netanyahu… is allowing anarchists like Zvi Sukkot and his ilk to do as they please, endangering security in the settlements and damaging Israel’s standing in the world,” he added.
Rami Nassar, head of Madama’s village council, said the memorial in the centre of the village listed names of those killed in a 1968 battle, during the first and second intifadas, and up to the present day.
Israel frequently accuses Palestinians of glorifying attacks on Israelis.
Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has increased sharply since the Gaza war began following Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel.
