Israeli Farmers File War Crimes Complaint Against Hamas ‘Kite Terrorism’

A group of Israeli farmers traveled to the Netherlands to file a war crimes complaint against Hamas at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Over the past five months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have flown thousands of rudimentary incendiary objects—including kites, balloons and even inflated condoms—into southern Israel, destroying thousands of acres of agricultural land and nature reserves. The “agricultural terrorism” is a by-product of the weekly Hamas-initiated “March of Return” protests along the Gaza border, which have invariably descended into mass violence. Critics of Israel have slammed the military’s use of live-fire to prevent demonstrators from penetrating into Israeli territory, rules of engagement that have resulted in the deaths of about 170 Palestinians, many of them members of terrorist groups. While war crimes are generally associated with mass murder, the ICC has in the past declared that the destruction of property can, in certain cases, qualify as such. Meanwhile, relative calm has persisted for nearly two weeks in the border region, amid ongoing efforts to reach a long-term cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. While the violence dominated the news cycle for almost half a year, the issue has largely fallen off the radar despite the tenuous situation, including ongoing Hamas-directed protests every Friday.