Alongside mass demonstrations near the Gaza-Israel border fence, Palestinian activists have been lighting paper kites on fire and launching them into the air. The kites, swept by the warm wind, cross the border fence from above and set fire to Israeli fields and crops.

Several hours before setting off for Europe on June 4, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on social media that he had instructed his national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat to start proceedings against the Palestinian Authority (PA) for damages caused by the fire kites from Gaza. Specifically, Israel would deduct the damages from tax revenues it collects for the PA and use the money to compensate Israeli farmers whose fields have been burned in the recent wave of airborne arson attacks.

Some 5,000 dunams (1,236 acres) of crops have gone up in flames on the Israeli border with Gaza in blazes ignited by these incendiary kites, causing damages estimated at millions of shekels. At a June 4 meeting of the Yisrael Beitenu Knesset faction, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman referred to the wave of arson, saying, “We will settle the score with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the rest of the terrorists operating against us from the Gaza Strip.” Liberman did not elaborate, but given the economic and humanitarian crisis plaguing the Gaza Strip, Israel clearly cannot “settle the score” by imposing punitive sanctions. As proven in a 24-hour flare-up of violence between Gaza and Israel last week, military action is not particularly effective, either.

Liberman reported to his party’s lawmakers that since the mass protests against Israel began along the border fence on March 30, the Palestinians had launched some 600 firebombs into Israeli territory. Israel intercepted about 400 using various technological means, while the rest landed and blackened 9,000 dunams (2,224 acres) of land, including crops and forests. Amazingly, a high-tech superpower such as Israel, with advanced military capabilities that can intercept most of the rockets and missiles fired at its territory from Gaza, is finding it hard to come up with an effective response to a weaponized piece of paper developed by Gaza’s desperate residents.