IDF says 4 kites apparently flown from Gaza found in Nahal Oz; residents demand response

Four kites apparently flown from the Gaza Strip landed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz over the weekend, prompting concerned residents to demand that Israel take action against what they believed to be a threat to their safety, given Hamas’s history of launching kites carrying incendiary devices at border communities.

The Israel Defense Forces said that one of the kites was found inside the kibbutz on Friday, and the three others were found on Saturday morning. It assessed that the kites, which were attached to kilometers-long strings, were flown across the border from Gaza.

The military stressed that “no suspicious findings were identified on the kites,” and that “at no stage was there any danger to the public,” although this did little to reassure residents of Nahal Oz, who warned that “this was how it started before October 7.”

Kibbutz Nahal Oz was one of the Gaza border communities targeted by invading Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. Some 180 terrorists overran the small community, killing 13 residents and four security personnel, and abducting eight civilians. Many homes were damaged or destroyed amid the fighting, as were the kibbutz’s agricultural fields. The community was then evacuated, with residents slowly starting to return in 2024.

According to Hebrew media reports, the IDF believes that Hamas was responsible for launching the kites, and was doing so to test if and how Israel would respond.

From 2018, Palestinian terrorists regularly launched kites carrying incendiary devices at Israeli border communities, setting fire to wide swaths of land.

The kibbutz, in a response to the IDF, said that it was taking the incident seriously, despite it posing no obvious threat, and urged the military to do the same.

“This is how it started before October 7. Initially, seemingly innocent kites with Arabic writing on them were sent from the Gaza Strip. Then, when Hamas realized that the kites were falling in our fields, they attached incendiary materials to them, and thousands of dunams of wheat fields were burned,” the statement recalled.

“The next step was explosive balloons intended to harm citizens of the communities, and we saw where it ended,” the statement continued. “We demand that the security forces nip the kites phenomenon in the bud.”

דג'ה וו מסוכן מאוד.
*4 עפיפונים בפחות מיממה בעוטף. אורי אפשטיין, ראש מועצת שער הנגב: "שומע הקטנה של האירוע ממערכת הביטחון. והם לא יודעים מי עומד מאחורי העפיפונים".
*אזהרות של תצפיתניות
*לוחמים לא מקבלים פקודות לתקוף מחבלים
*משאיות אספקה שמממנות את חמאס, בעצם המשך מימון… pic.twitter.com/4SS364UnCb

— אסף פוזיילוב (@pozailov1) August 22, 2026

The Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, which encompasses the Gaza border communities, similarly demanded that the military respond to the kites flown over from the Hamas-run Strip.

“We demand that the IDF act against every kite that crosses into Israeli territory, locate it, and deal with it in real time. Not after it has landed. Not retroactively. In real time,” said the head of the council, Uri Epstein.

“These incidents must not become a routine the security establishment learns to live with. A kite that crosses into Israeli territory is an incident that requires a response. When there is no response, the message that gets across to the other side is that they can continue,” he added.

“We must not make this mistake again. We demand an immediate investigation of the incidents, and to ensure that there is a response that is activated in real time, not after the incident has ended,” Epstein said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.