Hamas is working hard to poison the minds of Gaza’s youth and train the next generation of terrorists.
By: United with Israel Staff
The Hamas terror group continued throughout 2018 to provide military training for students in government high schools in the Gaza Strip, with the so-called “March of Return” riots and ongoing tensions with Israel and attacks on it in the background, according to a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center (ITIC).
According to the report, the training is part of the al-Futuwwa (“youth/heroism”) program, which prepares them to join Hamas’ ranks, as well as those of other Palestinian terrorist organizations, in the future.
The government schools in the Gaza Strip are technically subordinate to the ministry of education run by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, but are in fact controlled by Hamas, which has absolute control of the Strip.
Al-Futuwwa military instruction and training are generally provided by officers in the national security forces, which belong to the Hamas-controlled ministry of the interior in the Gaza Strip.
The students are given basic military skills, including theoretical and practical training using various types of weapons. They are also given practical assignments in the field and are incorporated into the ongoing security activities of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military-terrorist wing.
Preparing the Next Generation of Terrorists
The ITIC explained that the al-Futuwwa program is part of more extensive ideological and practical Hamas program for young children, adolescents and university students in the Gaza Strip. It begins in kindergarten and ends in university with the objective of fostering a cadre of military and political operatives from the younger generation and to inculcate them with Hamas’ ideology, which includes the full liberation of “Palestine,” refusal to recognize the existence of the state of Israel, adherence to the path of jihad, Islamic holy war, and the tenets of radical Islamism.
Therefore, adolescent Gazans were heavily represented during the Hamas-led riots on Israel’s border with Gaza, the ITIC explained.
The al-Futuwwa program was introduced into the school curriculum by Hamas in 2012. the program has since given tens of thousands of students theoretical and practical military training. The program is implemented in many of the Hamas-controlled schools in the Gaza Strip.
As opposed to Hamas’ summer camps, where participation is voluntary, al-Futuwwa is required as part of the curriculum. According to educational personnel in the Hamas administration, the objective of the program is to train students in combat skills so they will be able to resist the “occupation” and to create a new generation of Palestinian youth capable of liberating and defending their land.
The students are given military and paramilitary training in topics such as basic skills, field skills, commando training, urban warfare, self-defense, and physical training.
The program has three basic components, which include weekly military lessons given inside the school throughout the school year, concentrated six-day training courses held in training camps during vacations, and practical action on the ground, including night patrols, securing junctions and key points, and manning roadblocks.
