Concern in the Gaza Envelope: Kites to be replaced by drones with fiber optics - "a game-changing event"
Residents and heads of local authorities express great concern about a return to the containment policy in the Gaza Envelope. According to them, infiltration into Israeli territory is perceived on the other side as tacit consent. A security director in one of the authorities warns: "There is a lack of ability to detect threats from the air."
Three kites have been located since this morning (Saturday) in the Gaza Envelope area, and in the communities, they are warning against a return to the containment policy that existed before October 7. The heads of the authorities say that from conversations with security officials, they understand that this is also an attempt by Hamas to send a message and test the Israeli response. In Sha'ar HaNegev, Eshkol, and Nahal Oz, they are demanding that the IDF stop the phenomenon before it becomes established, and in "Atid LaOtef" ("Future for the Envelope"), they warn: "At first it's just a kite, later the exception becomes the routine."
According to the heads of the authorities, the fear is that the lack of a clear response to every such infiltration will be perceived on the other side as tacit consent and will allow for the expansion of the use of the aerial dimension for more significant threats in the future.
Uri Epstein, head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, demanded that the IDF act against every kite that crosses the border while it is still in the air. "We demand that the IDF locate it and deal with it in time. Not after it has landed, not in retrospect, in real time," he said.
According to him, "Since this morning, at least four kites have been found, with strings stretching for kilometers. These events must not become a routine that the security establishment learns to live with. A kite that crosses into Israeli territory is an event that requires a response. When there is no response, the message that is passed to the other side is that it is possible to continue. We must not make this mistake again."
Epstein also demanded an immediate investigation into who is behind the launching of the kites and what their purpose is. "After October 7, we will not accept the words 'it will be okay' again. We have already seen on the northern border how threats are constantly changing and developing, and the response must precede them, not chase after them. The writing is already in the sky. Now it is the IDF's responsibility to act in time."
"One explosive drone in a crowded place - a consciousness-changing event"
Security officials in the councils are simultaneously raising a broader concern: that the kites are only an early sign of a much more significant threat of drones guided by fiber optics. An official in the area wondered how the army would be able to deal with a maneuvering explosive drone if today, according to him, it struggles to locate and deal with a kite that is almost static in the air with a string about four kilometers long attached to it.
A., a security director in one of the authorities in the Envelope, said that one of the possibilities being examined is an attempt to create a "new equation" against Israel precisely in the aerial dimension, at a time when the IDF holds a more significant advantage in the ground arena. According to him, "One explosive drone in a crowded place or in a kindergarten, God forbid, could be a game-changer on the consciousness level."
According to that official, there are also questions within the security establishment regarding the readiness to deal with threats such as drones and small aircraft. He points out that in parallel with the investment in technological protection and cameras in communities adjacent to the fence, there is still a lack of sufficient ability to detect threats coming from the air.
"After October 7, no violation must be contained"
Michal Uziyahu, head of the Eshkol Regional Council, also warned against a return to a policy of containment. "We remember well that what started with innocent-looking kites turned into incendiary balloons that created huge fires, endangered the lives of the communities, and were part of an allegedly innocent camouflage behind which Hamas's bloody plan was formed," she said. "After October 7, we must not contain any more violations of our sovereignty, even if it starts with a kite."
In Kibbutz Nahal Oz, they also view the return of the phenomenon with severity and recall the way the kite threat developed in the years preceding the massacre. On behalf of the kibbutz, it was stated: "We view with severity the phenomenon of kites returning to us again, this is how it started before October 7. At first, allegedly innocent kites were sent from the Strip, with writing in Arabic. Later, when Hamas realized that the kites were falling in our fields, they attached combustible materials to them and thus thousands of dunams of wheat fields were burned. The continuation was explosive balloons intended to harm the citizens of the communities, and we saw how it ended."
In the "Atid LaOtef" organization, they also warned that the security establishment must not see each of the events as a separate case. The organization noted that one kite was spotted yesterday over a kibbutz in the Envelope and was not located, and two more kites were located this morning in the area - three kites in less than 24 hours, which they say join a series of similar events in the recent period.
In "Atid LaOtef", they noted that today IDF forces are deployed on the yellow line and create a significant layer of protection, but according to them, the security of the communities cannot depend only on the current location of the forces. "The responsibility of the State of Israel is not only to distance the threat, but to remove it and prevent its reconstruction," they stated.
The organization also pointed to the "Atid LaOtef Security Concept" report, according to which only 3% of residents believed that Israel deters Hamas to a great extent. "This is an opportunity to prove that reality has changed: we do not wait for the phenomenon to expand, we do not normalize it, and we do not contain it," they stated. "We demand that the security establishment immediately investigate the source of the kites, their purpose, and the connection between the recent events, and stop the phenomenon before it becomes established."
Officials in the Envelope say that they have approached the IDF for answers regarding the recent events, but as of now, they have been told that the issue is under investigation. From their perspective, the very fact of settling for an investigation after the kites have already crossed the border and landed in Israel is part of the problem. They demand a system that will know how to identify the events and respond to them in real time.
