JERUSALEM — A four-year-old child was among three Palestinians killed in central Gaza on Sunday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to escalate attacks over the alleged launching of paper kites from the war-torn enclave.Israel fired missiles at a warehouse in az-Zawayda, reducing it to rubble, and then carried out strikes near Salah al-Din Street, killing four-year-old Muhammad Abdel Salam Taha.Israeli drone attacks also targeted southern Khan Younis and a tent sheltering displaced people in Deir el-Balah, resulting in more casualties.An Anadolu correspondent, citing a medical source, said Mohammed Abdul Nasser Abu Asad, 27, was killed and others were injured, one of them seriously, when an Israeli drone struck the tent sheltering displaced people near Shuhadaa Al-Aqsa Hospital.Separately, another Palestinian died of wounds sustained in an Israeli drone strike Sunday that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people west of the city, a medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said.The Israeli strike had injured seven Palestinians at the time.The deadly bombardment comes as Palestinian and Israeli affairs experts warn that the government is fabricating a security crisis around children’s toys to derail ceasefire agreements, enforce demographic changes and ensure Netanyahu’s political survival.Eyewitnesses also reported heavy Israeli gunfire from military vehicles toward homes and tents for displaced people in southern and eastern Khan Younis, with no injuries reported.Israeli artillery also shelled the Abu Rashid area south of Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said.After the attack, Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement on Sunday threatening severe retaliation over the toys. They also threatened the forced displacement of Palestinians from areas “used as launch sites for kites, drones and balloons”.“There will be no return to the state of affairs prior to October 7 [2023],” the joint statement said, adding that Israel will not allow Hamas or any other group in Gaza “to threaten our communities again and compromise our citizens’ sense of security”.The attacks came despite the Israeli military acknowledging that the recovered kites contained no explosives and were simply flown by children. While the joint statement cited “kites, drones, and balloons”, military inspections confirmed finding only 10 paper kites – all completely free of explosives and flown by children in displacement camps.Palestinian political analyst Hussam Shaheen told Al Jazeera that claims regarding drones being launched from Gaza are fabricated. “It is a false and baseless assertion; it is non-existent. It has been denied, and there is no evidence whatsoever to prove any connection to drones,” he said.Adel Shadid, an expert on Israeli affairs, said the threat is entirely manufactured by Hebrew media under the direction of the military establishment.“It was clear that there was an intention to invest in and use these paper kites as a pretext, and the whole issue might be fabricated,” Shadid said.
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