After what we've been through, we can't ask the residents of the Gaza envelope to assume it's 'just a kite'

A personal column by a Kan 11 correspondent, recounting his friend Elad Katzir, a resident of Nir Oz who was kidnapped and murdered in Hamas captivity, and his repeated warnings about incendiary kites from Gaza. Following the return of kites to the Gaza envelope this week, the writer argues that residents can no longer accept this threat as something to get used to, given the price of waiting they paid on October 7.

In a personal column published on Kan 11, the correspondent recalls his friend Elad Katzir, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz who was kidnapped from his home on October 7 and later murdered in Hamas captivity. For years, whenever an incendiary kite or balloon arrived in the area, Elad would send the correspondent messages and videos of fires in the fields, warning: 'It starts with a kite, who knows how it will end.' This week, with the return of kites from the Gaza Strip to the Gaza envelope, the writer argues that residents of the envelope can no longer accept this threat as something to get used to or contain. They have already paid the price of assuming they could wait and see where things would develop. The writer concludes by saying it is hard to ask people living opposite Gaza to look at the sky and tell themselves again 'it's just a kite.'

After what we've been through, we can't ask the residents of the Gaza envelope to assume it's 'just a kite'