GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Jan. 20, less than six months after the end of the most recent Israeli war on Gaza, Hamas relaunched Vanguards of Liberation camps for youth ages 15-21. Some 17,000 young men graduated from this camp Jan. 29 to form, according to the movement, the nucleus of the next Liberation Army.

Zakaria al-Hour, general director of educational activities at the Ministry of Education, told Al-Monitor, “We are now affiliated with the reconciliation government, which did not provide us with financial benefits, nor operational or administrative orders, and thus the ministry could not organize the Vanguard of Liberation camps this year." Hour said that instead, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades organized the camps on its own. “Due to the lack of funds, other parties [the brigades] took it upon themselves to establish this program, which was affected by political issues,” he stated.

In 2012, the Hamas Ministry of Education inaugurated Futtuwa, a program offering young males training in security skills while exposing them to religious sermons during school hours. In 2013-14, the program became the Vanguards of Liberation military camps, organized by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior. The camps now organized by the al-Qassam Brigades are held over a period of seven days during the midterm and summer school vacations, attracting some 13,000 students.

Hamas leader Ismail Radwan told Al-Monitor, “The purpose behind the Vanguards of Liberation camps this year is to prepare the [young] generation to protect its dignity. It is a message to the entire world that the Palestinian people will not give up on its right to resistance and that nothing can break its resolve.” He further explained, “It is true that we are no longer in the government, but Hamas has the right to take these generations under its wing and train and raise them.”