Genocide continues, on the pretext of kites

Acting forcefully against kites is one of Israel’s latest purported security concerns. “My directive to the defence establishment and the IDF is to do everything against this lethal weapon – to strike it, to strike those operating it, to strike the place from which it was launched, to do everything in order to protect our citizens in the Gaza border communities and everywhere else,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Defence Minister Israel Katz echoed Netanyahu’s statement, saying he instructed the military “to act immediately and forcefully” against any launches from Gaza which, he said are “an act of war in every respect.”

The kites which the Israeli military found in Gaza, however, had no explosive devices. Even Israeli media confirmed as much.

Since no devices were launched, and Israel is treating any launch as an attack even if it is just a kite, the rhetoric exposes noting other than a direct threat of additional Israeli airstrikes that will kill more Palestinians and force others into new cycles of displacement.

According to Israeli media, Hamas is behind the kite launches to stall Gaza’s reconstruction. But Gaza’s reconstruction has been stalled by the Board of Peace itself, which scaled down reconstruction to pilot projects. Israel, meanwhile, is refusing to retreat from the Yellow Line. Netanyahu has repeatedly declared himself against the two-state framework or retreating from Gaza, as his earlier order to the military to occupy 70 per cent of Gaza clearly indicates. If Israel does not retreat from Gaza, reconstruction for Palestinians does not need to happen. What will happen, however, is further forced displacement. Even if it means turning harmless kites into a new enemy.

The international community will allow Israel to talk and attack, and condemn later, after more corpses pile up in what remains of Gaza. It will not question how a military power like Israel could feel threatened by kites, lest the colonial narrative is disrupted and the slower pace of genocide stops altogether. Israel has a presence in Gaza through military occupation – what exactly is the threat Israel perceives from a population that is more concerned with its own survival in almost three years of perpetual forced displacement from the genocide?

While Israel talks about kites, Palestinians are facing the repercussions of Israel’s security narrative. Israel does not need a pretext for killing more Palestinians – the international community’s acceptance of genocide did all the work in that regard. However, having a flimsy excuse serving as reason helps the rhetoric, no matter how absurd.

The problem is not kites, or drones, or resistance against colonialism. For Israel, the problem is that Palestinians exist. It has been the most pressing problem for Zionism since colonialism in Palestine started taking shape.

Security for Israel means a complete absence of Palestinians. With reconstruction prospects dwindling to match the genocide and its aims, it becomes easier for Israel to find insignificant details to add to its narrative as to why the military should keep bombing Gaza, killing Palestinians and entrenching itself further. Kites are merely a façade for Israel’s accelerating annihilation of the Palestinian people.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.