US embassy staff start returning to ME

Parents in Gaza have been urged to stop their children from flying kites after Israel threatened a forceful response if Hamas revives a tactic of sending incendiary kites across the border, adding to tensions under a fragile ceasefire.

Popular committees representing local non-governmental organisations and charities operating displacement camps and shelters issued the warning late on Monday. A Hamas source said the announcement had been coordinated with Hamas authorities.

In recent weeks, several kites not reported to be carrying incendiary materials have been seen drifting from Gaza into Israel. The committees said they were trying to prevent the practice not to deprive children of play, but to protect them after years of war and insecurity.

Gaza residents have previously used kites and balloons to send incendiary materials over the border. In 2018, incendiary balloons and kites launched from Gaza caused fires across hundreds of acres of Israeli fields and farmland.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Hamas that unless the practice stopped immediately, those responsible for launching kites, balloons or drones towards Israel would be targeted

for assassination, while areas used to launch them would be evacuated.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian on Tuesday in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Later, another Israeli airstrike killed at least three people near a school

sheltering displaced

families in Jabalia in northern Gaza, according to medics.