Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describes the decision to treat the kites that have been launched from Gaza as a genuine physical threat. Dr. Ron Schleifer, an expert in psychological warfare, views the phenomenon as Hamas psychological warfare against Israel.
Dr. Schleifer opens by saying that the prime minister is right to take the kite threat seriously. He says there is encouragement to be drawn from this serious approach, noting that until now, the tendency among military Intelligence researchers was to regard phenomena such as the kites as marginal and not a threat to Israel-and certainly not something that justified confronting the US president.
Schleifer explains that launching kites toward Israel is part of what he calls an “offensive strategy that operates in tiny steps." He says, “Hamas cannot currently use its weapons for obvious reasons. It is at a disadvantage, so it is turning to psychological warfare, which can be more damaging than fire. It causes the other side-Israel-to doubt and deliberate over whether to act, whether a response is justified or not, while the initiative remains in its hands. This is a conditioning technique."
He adds that “in all revolutionary warfare, of which psychological warfare is a part, the enemy is conditioned so that it does not feel that anything significant is happening until it is too late. This requires sacrifice and patience, both of which Hamas has in abundance."
So how does the conditioning strategy work, step by step?
“It begins with kites flown by children, meaning we cannot hurt them. Hamas identifies our moral considerations as a point of strength for itself. The kites cross the boundary, and the children simply go to retrieve a kite that has fallen, thereby crossing the line again while Israel cannot do anything. Later, the mother will come to take the child away. The soldier, female observer and sniper will watch them and do nothing. This conditions us to accept that women can cross, and afterward it will be a sheep that escapes, then the shepherd, and so on."
The “kite route" will also become increasingly sophisticated, Schleifer says. “The next stage is that the kites will carry messages in Hebrew or English." He recalls that in 2018, Israel initially dismissed the phenomenon of incendiary balloons, “and we all remember how that ended. After the balloons will come heavier balloons, and eventually kites capable of carrying firebombs that can ignite fields. That is how the situation gradually deteriorates."
The use of children by Hamas for offensive and defensive purposes is not new to Israel. Israel has been familiar with it for years, and Europe is now becoming aware of it as well.
“In the struggle between Islam and Europe, demonstrations of weakness are viewed as a winning tool. When a migrant boat reaches the shores of Spain, they put the children forward first, so that coast guard soldiers will hesitate or look the other way. They know that Westerners do not hurt children. In our experience with the Palestinian Arabs, there is endless evidence of the use of children as human shields against snipers or gunfire in general."
Schleifer recalls an incident in which an IDF ambush in one of the neighborhoods in Gaza spotted a terrorist riding a bicycle loaded with shells, surrounded by sleepy children. “The commander of the ambush ordered his forces to withdraw and do nothing."
“The brilliant part of this is that if the ambush commander, or any other responsible commander, sees children being used, he cannot morally do anything. And if he does do something, it will remain on his conscience for the rest of his life, potentially resulting in post-traumatic stress, while for them it is a gain."
Asked how Israel can respond to this type of cynical warfare that exploits Israeli morality and the eyes of the world watching, Dr. Schleifer says, “The answer is to prohibit children from crossing the line." Asked whether that means shooting at children, he says no, and instead proposes an aggressive campaign in the Western world-one that may still be willing to stand up for children's rights-to explain how Hamas operates.
“Hamas positions photographers to see Israel’s response. Whatever we do will work against us. If we act, we are cruel, and if we do nothing, we are fools. But there is something that can be done: launch a campaign exposing the cruel use of children, approach UNICEF, the United Nations children’s organization, and every children’s rights organization in the West, attack relentlessly and give them no opportunity to evade the issue or look the other way."
Another method of dealing with the situation, which Dr. Schleifer mentions, is the use of certain crowd-dispersal measures. In his view, tear gas should not be among them, because Palestinians have already succeeded in portraying tear gas in the international media as Israel’s use of “gas," which was received very negatively. Nevertheless, he hints that there are enough other, less visible means that could be used, without elaborating.