GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In the streets surrounding the Saraya neighborhood in central Gaza City, boys are lined up in groups like military battalions, wearing paramilitary clothes and surrounded by supervisors in full uniform and carrying weapons, while loudspeakers chant fiery Hamas anthems calling for jihad.
A thousand students ranging in age from 12 to 17 gather in the afternoons for three hours, seven days a week, wearing fatigues, black shirts and green berets. They are trained in the basics of military action and security in the camps organized by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip during their summer vacation. Forty supervisors affiliated with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, divide the students into groups. Some groups are trained to carry and use arms and others to navigate obstacle courses, while another group is trained on debarkation techniques and safety.
Each year, Hamas holds summer camps for male and female students of various ages. Some of these camps are predominantly recreational and cultural, while others focus on the military drills, all part of a program to promote Hamas and its ideology. Hamza Ahmad, a summer camp official in the Saraya region, said military drills fall in line with Hamas’ conviction that the Palestinians are in a state of conflict with Israel, and they must know the basics of military action in addition to the security and cultural aspects of the program.
“There are ongoing incursions into the Gaza Strip from the Israeli occupation and all classes of the Palestinian people must learn the basics of dealing with firearms for self-defense,” Ahmad told Al-Monitor. “This young generation bears major responsibilities in the future and is supposed to be mentally and physically prepared for any military confrontation. The Zionist enemy took the land by force and it will only be taken back by force. This is what we teach these boys, who are the future generation, and who show a great desire to learn and train on weapons and military action techniques,” he added.
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