Israel’s Justice Minister has warned that the government might launch another war against the Gaza Strip because Palestinians continue to fly “incendiary kites” over Israeli farms, Quds Press reported on Friday. Ayelet Shaked also accused Hamas of inflaming the situation in the besieged territory.

In response to Israel’s murderous attacks on peaceful demonstrators taking part in the Great March of Return protests since 30 March, the Palestinians have taken to flying kites with Molotov cocktails attached. Shaked said that Israel, which developed the iron dome anti-missile system, is able to develop a new system to take down the Palestinian kites. She claimed that the Palestinian children who fly kites are “terrorists” involved in “terrorism”.

The minister echoed similar remarks made by the Israel’s Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, who was reported by Haaretz on Thursday as saying that Israel might be “forced” to launch a “large-scale military operation” in the Gaza Strip. “I do not want to launch an operation, but there is a good chance that we will have no other option but to go in so that we can create durable deterrence,” he told Israeli Army Radio.

Erdan added that those who launch burning kites from Gaza should be shot, regardless of their age. “Age does not matter,” he insisted, “they are terrorists and the danger they create must be prevented.”

The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continue to point out that their protests are entirely legitimate under international law. To call them terrorists, they insist, is not only inaccurate, but also an attempt by the Israelis and their supporters to deceive the world about the nature of the conflict in occupied Palestine.