In rare warning, Board of Peace tells Israel to limit Gaza fire to ‘genuine’ threats
Times of Israel · LC · trust 38/100
An official from the US-backed Board of Peace made a rare call on Tuesday for Israel to comply with the ceasefire in Gaza and limit strikes to “immediate” threats, even as IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir vowed that targeted killings of October 7 terrorists will continue until they are all “eliminated.”
The Board of Peace official also said that “all militant activity” in Gaza, including kite flying, must stop, two days after Israel threatened a forceful response if the Hamas terror group revives a tactic of launching incendiary kites over the border.
“All militant activity in Gaza must stop, including the flying of kites. We have conveyed this message directly through the established mechanism,” an official of the Board of Peace — tasked with implementing the October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza — told multiple outlets.
“Israel, too, must comply with the ceasefire; military action cannot extend beyond responding to genuine and imminent threats,” the official added.
The statement from the Board of Peace came after Israel appealed to the organization over the spike in kites flown from Gaza in recent days. But the response marked a rare admonition of Israel by the Board, which has largely refrained from publicly criticizing Israeli military activity in Gaza in recent months.
But Zamir said during a visit to Gaza on Tuesday that Israel’s hunt for terrorists involved in the October 7, 2023, onslaught will continue in the Gaza Strip.
“We will not allow our enemies along the borders, with an emphasis on Gaza and Lebanon, to rebuild their strength,” Zamir said. “We will not allow terror infrastructure to become established. We will take every opportunity to eliminate threats as they emerge.”
Zamir continued that “the pursuit of the October 7 terrorists continues. Anyone who took part in the massacre will live under pursuit until they are eliminated.”
“This is a high-priority mission to which the [Southern] Command and the entire IDF are committed,” he added.
A total of 12 kites and four balloons have reportedly crossed from Gaza into Israeli border communities this month. The military stressed that “no suspicious findings were identified on the kites,” and that “at no stage was there any danger to the public.”
But according to Hebrew media reports, the IDF believes that Hamas was responsible for launching the kites, and was doing so to test whether and how Israel would respond.
Officials have told The Times of Israel that senior US representatives and board members expressed concern during their recent meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s interpretation of “imminent threats” in Gaza is too “vague” and risks stalling advancement of Washington’s peace plan, which would see Hamas disarmed and have Israel withdraw.
In recent months, the IDF has stepped up its efforts to kill Palestinian terrorists involved in October 7, justifying the strikes amid the ceasefire by claiming that the targets had “posed an immediate threat.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz also threatened to “intensify strikes” against those responsible for launching kites from Gaza toward Israeli border communities, and evacuate areas of the Strip.
Gaza parents were warned late Monday to stop their children from flying kites in the war-ravaged enclave. The popular committees, comprising representatives of local non-government organizations and charities that run Gaza displacement camps and shelters in the Hamas-run area of the Strip, issued the warning in a statement coordinated with Hamas authorities.
“We are working tirelessly on the ground and doing everything possible to stop this practice, not to restrict the childhood of our children, who have already been deprived of the most basic rights to play and live in safety, but to protect their innocent lives,” the statement said.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group has complained to ceasefire mediators that “Israel was making fake pretexts to continue the war on Gaza.”
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed one Palestinian in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, south of the enclave. The IDF said it had targeted a terror operative, without further information.
The IDF also said Tuesday that it bombed five Hamas weapon depots located inside mosques and near aid sites, along with a rocket launch site, in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.
צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו והשמידו אתמול חמישה מחסני אמצעי לחימה ואתר שיגור של ארגון הטרור חמאס במספר תקיפות ברחבי רצועת עזה >> pic.twitter.com/XXpSVYoZ9T
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 25, 2026
According to the IDF, the arms sites were used to store rockets, weapons, explosives and other military gear used by Hamas to advance attacks on troops. “These storage facilities were established inside mosques and alongside humanitarian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,” the military said. Ahead of the strikes, the IDF published warnings to Palestinians residing in the area.
The military and Shin Bet said in a joint statement that the strikes “constitute a clear warning” to Hamas, adding that Israel “will not accept any kind of terror activity” in the Strip that threatens Israeli civilians.
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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