Israel using small remote-controlled airplanes to combat Gaza’s ‘attack kites’

Army sends tiny aircraft with knives on their wings to cut the strings of the airborne incendiary devices

By ToI Staff 12 May 2018, 10:07 am
An IDF-operated model airplane used to cut the chords of incendiary kites in the Gaza Strip, May 11, 2018 (Hadashot screen capture)

Israel is employing small remote-controlled airplanes to battle the phenomenon of incendiary kites in the Gaza Strip, Hadashot news reported Friday night.

The military is using the planes, armed with cutting knives on their wings, to cut the kites’ wires, thus preventing them from carrying their payload of firebombs over the border and sparking fires in Israel.

According to the report on Friday the tiny aircraft’s operators managed to down seven kites flown towards Israel.

For the past several weeks, Gazans have been regularly flying kites outfitted with containers of burning fuel, often including charcoal and bags of sugar to ensure a long, slow burn.

A Palestinian man prepares an incendiary device attached to a kite before trying to fly it over the border fence with Israel, on the eastern outskirts of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip, on May 4, 2018. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

The kite tactic was introduced as part of the weekly “March of Return” demonstrations at the border fence, which began on March 30 and are due to continue through mid-May.

The kites have regularly sparked fires in Israeli fields, and the army has struggled to thwart the new weapon.

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