Israel has warned that it will increase strikes on Gaza following reports that kites, drones and balloons have been launched from the territory.
Local media said several kites were discovered in an Israeli community near the border with Gaza over the weekend.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said forceful actions would be taken to end the phenomenon and that officials were treating a kite the same as a drone, and a balloon the same as a kite, whether or not it carried explosives.
Military sources told reporters that they suspected Hamas was behind the kites and that they might have been intended to test Israel’s reaction.
The kites carried no suspicious material and did not pose an immediate threat, the military said, but the Israeli government warned that it would have zero tolerance for future incidents.
Residents of the kibbutz Nahal Oz stated that they feared the re‑appearance of incendiary kites and balloons and that they would not accept a policy of containment regarding their security.
Hamas denied responsibility for the new kites and described them as children’s toys from displacement camps, accusing Israel of using the incident as a pretext for continued air strikes despite the ceasefire that began last October.
Palestinian health officials said two people were killed and seven others injured in two Israeli strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp and the town of al‑Zawayda in central Gaza on Sunday.
Israeli forces said they killed the commander of a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in the Maghazi area and warned residents to evacuate beforehand.
In addition to the Gaza casualties, Israel’s military reported the death of Mohammed Abu Asad, an elite member of Hamas’s armed wing, after an overnight strike on a tent in Deir al‑Balah on Monday.
Since the start of the campaign, Israeli attacks have killed more than 74,420 people in Gaza, including over 1,200 deaths since a recent ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s health ministry.
