Hamas Summer Fun: Terror Training Camps for Kids

Instead of fun in the sun, Palestinians use the summer to train their next generation of terrorists and mass murderers

While summer camps for youngsters are in full swing around the globe, the Palestinian Hamas terror group in Gaza is busy running a special terrorist training program for children, which includes military exercises, the use of weapons, and lessons in abducting Israeli soldiers.

Hamas terrorists, who rule Gaza, have again set up summer training camps throughout the Strip to “train future generations of Palestinian resistance fighters,” the group’s preferred term for the murderers and other criminals it trains to attack civilians.

The ultimate objective of these summer camps, besides training and indoctrination, is to act as an auxiliary force in a future confrontation with Israel.

The graduation ceremonies from these summer programs include the use of live ammunition, explosions, and staged abductions of Israeli soldiers.

This summer, children at one of these Hamas summer camps staged a reenactment of the recent violence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, with kids dressed up as Hamas terrorists pretending to storm the compound and “liberate” the holy site, a twisted pageant that involved the mock stabbing death of an Israeli soldier.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center (ITIC) points out that the incorporation of youth into the Hamas terror apparatus makes the distinction between civilians and combatants during warfare more difficult and could result in a rise in civilian casualties in a future conflict.

An ITIC examination of the names of Gazan casualties of Operation Protective Edge indicates the inclusion of 15-17-year-olds in the ranks of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, although the extent of their inclusion is unclear.

The practice of pressing youth into the service of terror is reminiscent of Hamas’ use of human shields during warfare, which constitutes a war crime.

The Summer’s ‘Heritage’: Mass Murder

Similarly, Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah held a summer camp for youth named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre. In 1978, Mughrabi and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway, murdering 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70.

Educating Palestinian youth to see terrorist murderers as role models is Palestinian Authority policy.

The PA’s Ministry of Culture endorsed Fatah’s camp with an official visit, while Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official PA daily, noted that camps such as this “place an emphasis on creating an educated and aware generation.”

One of the means by which the PA and Fatah glorify terrorists and their attacks is by naming events, streets, and schools after them. The PA has named at least 28 schools after terrorists and three after Nazi collaborators.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported last week that the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Culture spoke about “the importance of the summer camps, and the interest they are revealing among the participants in the skills of art and creation.”

“He added that the Ministry of Culture is showing great interest in camps like these and met with the creators and the talented [participants], while focusing on strengthening the importance of the Palestinian heritage in the minds of our children, as the heritage is one of the most important symbols of Palestinian identity and culture.” The “heritage” to which the announcement refers is the mass murder of Israelis.

By: United with Israel Staff