Hungry kids in the rubble of Gaza
Find a bag of balloons and a paper kite
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in Elbit systems
Flash the message “Something’s out there”
Floating on the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
When ninety-nine red balloons go by
99 Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call an airstrike in a hurry
This is what we’ve waited for
Kids are playing, this means war
The president is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Ride super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a superhero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To blow up an apartment building
Kids must die
When ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In everyone one, a red balloon
It’s all over and I’m standing pretty
In this dust that was Gaza City
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove children were here
And here is a kite and a red balloon
I think of 80,000 dead Gazans and let them go
“99 Red Balloons” was written by Carlo Karges (German lyrics) and Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen (music), with the English translation and lyrics written by Kevin McAlea. The German language version was released in 1983 and the English language version in 1984. The song was released by German group Nena (the alter ego of singer Gabriele Kerner).
The song was an anti-war statement hypothesising what would happen if balloons from the then West Berlin drifted over the then Berlin Wall into East Berlin.
The song came to mind for me today (and I have modified the lyrics very slightly to address these events) after Israel issued a “warning” to Hamas that it will increase strikes on Gaza following concern over launches of kites and balloons from the territory.
I have emphasised the word “increase” as, of course, the Israelis will tell you that there is a ceasefire in place and that they are honouring it. However, even Israeli Minister Katz acknowledges that airstrikes are occurring (they have occurred every day since the “ceasefire” was announced 10 October 2025) and hence the threat is not to commence strikes but increase them.
Israel has, since 10 October 2025, killed over 1,286 Gazans. Israel has killed more Gazans, many of them children, during the nonsensically described “ceasefire” than Israelis were killed in the 7 October 2023 uprising. And the Israeli “yellow line” now sees Israel occupying over 70% of Gaza, which land Israeli ministers are brazenly open of claiming as their own (whilst the West and our own government are silent and, at best, express disappointment – words but no action – as Paulo Freire opined in “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” – “without the praxis of action, words are mere rhetoric”).
These statements and subsequent actions came after 4 kites were found in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which is about 800m (2,620ft) from the Gaza border and several more were found elsewhere in southern Israel. The paper kites were just that-kites, children’s playthings, with no explosives, inflammables (other than the paper they were made of) or weapons.
“Forceful actions will be taken to put an end to this phenomenon,” Israel’s Defence Minister (aka Minister of DOA (Death, Occupation and Aggression) Israel Katz said. Forceful action warranted against children’s play.
And act Israel has, in their usual fashion. This extract from Palestine Chronicle1 describes that action:
On Sunday (23 August), Israeli airstrikes targeting central Gaza struck a building in az-Zawayda, killing three people—including four-year-old Mohammad Abdel-Salam Taha. The justification offered by the occupying forces for these deadly operations? A security directive ordering that paper kites, balloons, and makeshift toys flown by children be treated with the same lethal force as military combat drones…. The decision by Israeli authorities to elevate kites to the status of weapons of war represents a terrifying new threshold in the normalization of asymmetric warfare.
As senior Hamas official Basem Naim noted, these children are not launching military operations; they are flying kites “in search of their innocent childhood amid the rubble.”
Iqbal Jassat concludes his article “A child flying a kite is not an act of war. It is an act of survival. It is the human spirit refusing to be crushed by the weight of oppression”
No doubt, all we will hear from Israel and out own implicated governments is the usual twin refrain, the twin lie, that Israel has “a right to defend itself” (this time from children’s play) and that those killed by Israel, including four-year-old Mohammad Abdel-Salam Taha, are “terrorists”, because that assertion justifies and excuses everything Israel does.
If Israel is afraid of children’s play and playthings, it is a truly weak, feeble and pathetic country with no morality or moral authority.
Disclaimer: to the extent that anyone may seek to suggest that the above represents a communication requiring authorisation under Section 321D of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the above is authored by and authorised by Joe Harman on behalf of Joe Harman.
- “The Wind from the Rubble: Why Gaza’s Kites Demand Global Solidarity” by Iqbal Jassat 25 August 2026 ↩︎
