Army ordered to take ‘forceful’ action after Gaza kites ignite fresh fears
Times of Israel · LC · trust 52/100
Palestinian media reports an Israeli airstrike in the Strip’s center a short while ago.
The strike took place near the town of az-Zawayda, close to central Gaza’s Maghazi camp.
#عاجل | طيران الاحتلال يشن غارة على بلدة الزوايدة وسط قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/kFgCxn9ET5
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) August 23, 2026
Defense Minister Israel Katz says he has instructed the IDF to “act forcefully” against the launching of kites from the Gaza Strip in recent days.
Over the weekend, at least four kites flown from Gaza landed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The army said nothing suspicious was found on the kites and there was no danger to the public, but many have associated the objects with Gazan kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices that plagued southern Israel in previous years.
“I instructed the IDF to act immediately and forcefully against any phenomenon of launches from Gaza toward the communities of the western Negev,” Katz says in statement.
Katz says he views “every launch as an act of war in every respect, and are committed to the absolute protection of the Israeli communities.”
“A balloon is treated like a kite, and a kite is treated like a drone — with or without explosives,” he says.
“Anyone who organizes, launches, or enables the launches will be dealt with immediately and with the utmost severity,” Katz adds.
From 2018, Palestinian terrorists regularly launched kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices into Israel, setting fires in border communities and sparking blazes on wide swaths of land.
Police say they arrested a 16-year-old settler accused of clubbing a Palestinian amputee yesterday, as well as a 17-year-old Israeli who allegedly recorded the attack.
The suspected attacker, from the Hebron-area settlement of Avigayil, was arrested overnight and police will seek to keep him in custody when he appears before a judge later today. The 17-year-old, from Jerusalem, was released to house arrest, police say.
HORRIFIC: A video shows an Israeli settler terrorist assaulting an elderly Palestinian amputee in Hebron, in the West Bank, beating him with a club. pic.twitter.com/9kYCYB7CUx
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) August 22, 2026
The attack yesterday occurred in the hamlet of Khirbet al-Rakiz, in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.
The victim was identified in Palestinian media as Sheikh Saeed al-Amour, 61, who lost his leg in April 2025 when he was shot during a clash with settlers.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Amour was hospitalized following yesterday’s attack.
Officers also confiscated a Ranger ATV seen in the video, which police say the teens had been driving without a license.
The vehicle is the same type that the Settlements Ministry provides wildcat farming outposts in the West Bank whose residents have been accused of generating perpetual harassment of Palestinians.
In December, Israeli soldiers were filmed knocking Amour to the ground, taking his crutch and carrying him into a military vehicle. Amour told the Haaretz newspaper that he was held for several hours at a nearby military base, bound and blindfolded.
חייל מפיל את השייח סעיד אל־אמור אל הארץ ומכוון אליו את נשקו, ביום שישי pic.twitter.com/wiEHNMH2iQ
— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) December 27, 2025
The IDF told Haaretz at the time that troops had used “reasonable” force against Amour because he had “acted with violence” against a security vehicle belonging to the Avigayil settlement.
Former Labor party head and opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich announces that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late last year and is undergoing regular chemotherapy.
Yachimovich, who led Labor from 2011 to 2013, retired from politics in 2019.
“Eight months ago, my life suddenly changed. A cancerous tumor was found in my pancreas. Luckily, I was diagnosed early, without metastases, and had surgery right away. Since then, the CT scan has shown for the third time that the removed tumor hasn’t returned and that there are no signs of recurrence,” Yachimovich posts on Facebook. “But pancreatic cancer is a sneaky bastard that needs to be attacked on all fronts, which is why I’m going through pretty tough chemotherapy once every two weeks.”
Airport labor chief Pinchas Idan says he won’t appeal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to kick him out of the Likud party, but continues to deny responsibility for a wildcat strike on Thursday that brought Ben-Gurion International Airport to a standstill and sparked widespread anger at him.
“Given that the prime minister has determined that it is actually me who is the evil cause of damage suffered by the party, I shall hereby refrain from appealing this determination,” Idan writes in a letter to Likud’s internal court.
Idan, who is also reportedly facing an ouster from his role as union boss, is a member of the Likud Central Committee who has reportedly signed up thousands of people as Likud members.
His term as union head was originally set to end in May 2026, but was extended, reportedly amid pressure on the Israel Airports Authority from senior Likud politicians.
In the letter, Idan says he did not give the order for workers to strike. “I even demanded an uncompromising investigation be launched to find who was responsible for giving this order,” he adds.
Former spy Jonathan Pollard announces that he will run for Knesset as part of former deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel’s Israel First party, declaring in a joint statement filmed at the Western Wall that “the entire country has been abandoned and betrayed” on October 7 and needs “a new government that’s dedicated to the preservation of the land and people of Israel.”
Pollard, a former US Navy intelligence analyst, spent 1985 to 2015 in US federal prison for passing secrets to Israel, in a case that caused a major rift between Jerusalem and Washington. He moved to Israel in 2020 and announced he was entering politics in May, stating that his main goal was to “unify…
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