IDF warns Gaza parents against terror summer camps
Commander of the IDF’s Unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Major General Ghasan Alyan addressed the residents of the Gaza Strip and warned them against the “true face” of the camps run by the Hamas and Islamic terror groups.
Campers at the Islamic Jihad camp in Gaza. (Majdi Fathi/TPS)
The terror groups run special training programs for children, which include military exercises, the use of weapons, and lessons in abducting Israeli soldiers, meant to train “future generations of Palestinian resistance fighters.”
This year’s theme is the “sword of Al-Quds battle,” the name Hamas gave to the campaign in May against Israel.
Over the course of the summer, Hamas will run dozens of camps at locations throughout the Strip for tens of thousands of children.
COGAT published a video clip on Facebook on Sunday comparing normal summer camps around the world and the “summer camps” run by the Hamas terrorist organization, in which Gaza children go through violent training camps to carry out terrorist acts against the civilian population.
Sources in the Gaza Strip told TPS that under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior and the Hamas Ministry of Education, senior members of the Shura Council are responsible for the camps’ curriculum and approve it, and dozens of youth are sent to the so-called “Night Attrition Units” that are involved in disturbances and violent riots on Gaza’s border with Israel.
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 Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center (ITIC) has pointed to the incorporation of youth into Hamas’ terror apparatus which makes the distinction between civilians and combatants during warfare more difficult and could result in a rise in civilian casualties.
“Hamas in Gaza is depriving young Palestinians of their childhood by poisoning their minds,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry has previously stated on the camps.
