Palestinians are sending kites loaded with flammable materials across the border with Israel in an effort to torch farmland.
The kites are loaded up with coal embers or burning rags suspended from a string and sent floating into Israeli territory where they have been igniting massive wildfires on farms.
The crude tactics have angered Israeli politicians, with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan calling for the kite-flyers to be subjected to ‘targeted assassinations’.
But Palestinian protesters have lauded the practice as ‘simple but effective’ having already burned thousands of acres of Israeli pastures.
A Palestinian protester shows off the flammable attachment doused in oil which has been joined to the bottom of a kite by a thin string
A group of Palestinian protesters launch a flaming kite from behind an embankment on their side of the border in Gaza
The kite-flyers launched the projectiles bearing messages written in Arabic that carry statements about the deadly border dispute
A kite in full flight with a large string dangling below it with a package, usually filled with coal embers or burning rags, dangling from the end
As well as kites, protesters have started to use balloons with flammable attachments to torch Israeli farms near the border
‘The idea is simple: use the simplest tools to cause damage and losses on the Occupation (Israel),’ said Shadi, 19, a Palestinian protestor.
‘It began spontaneously. We never thought we would achieve such good results,’ he added.
No one has been hurt by the fires, but some 2,250 acres (910 hectares) of fields and nature reserves, already parched after a dry winter, have been burned by flames stoked by Mediterranean winds, causing $2.5 million in damage, Israel’s government said.
Israel has drafted in civilian drone enthusiasts as army reservists, instructing them to fly their remote-controlled aircraft into the kites, an Israeli general said.
The army has also fitted larger surveillance drones with weighted fishing lines or blades that can snag or slash kite strings in mid-air.
‘If their drone ends up getting lost in the process, we compensate them,’ the general said.
But he acknowledged the limitations of such measures, saying: ‘We’ll probably end up having to shoot kite-flyers too.’
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan had earlier said Israeli snipers should shoot the kite flyers.
‘I expect the IDF (Iraeli army) to handle these kite-flyers exactly as they would any terrorist, and the targeted assassinations must also apply to these kite-flyers,’ Mr Erdan said.
A Palestinian kite is caught by a series of wires laid across the Israeli border to stop the incoming projectiles from Palestinian territory
An Israeli firefighter drags his hose towards the blaze as the fire rages across the dry wheat fields on the border with Palestine
A firefighter wearing only a smattering of protective clothing hoses the scorched ground where the kites landed in the field
Some 2,250 acres (910 hectares) of fields and nature reserves have already been torched in the kite attacks on Israeli farms
Israeli Public security Minister Gilad Erdan (left) has called for the protesters flying kites to be killed using ‘targeted assassinations’
An Israeli soldier shows off a drone which has intercepted a package of flammable material in a device which was connected to balloons sent across the border
Two Israeli soldiers practice flying a small drone which the army have drafted in to try and deal with the rising number of kite and balloon ambushes
A drone flies metres away from an Israeli convoy on the Gaza border as the pilot searches out Palestinian projectiles to take down
The Israeli military has brought in a system of using larger drones with large wires suspended beneath to stop Palestinian kites and balloons coming across the border
The flammable material left behind by one of the rogue balloons burns out in the sand on the Israeli side having been taken down
Palestinian demonstrators react to tear gas fired by Israeli troops during a protest marking Naksa, at the Israel-Gaza border