Hamas held a closing ceremony in Gaza on Friday for 120,000 boys and girls attending the terrorist group’s summer schools, AFP reports.
The ceremony, for some 1,000 students who took part in camps in the southern city of Khan Yunis, was framed as part of the group's plan to continue its armed conflict with Israel.
Boys between 15 and 18 years of age were put through military drills at the week-long camp, including shooting with live ammunition and training in scouting skills.
Hamas official Ashraf Abu Zayed said the training came within the framework of "preparing for the liberation of Palestine".
"We are trying to invest the younger generation and guide them towards the liberation project," he told AFP, referring to armed struggle against Israel.
Hamas’s so-called “military wing”, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, regularly trains children at its camps on military skills, such as use of weapons, and also simulates the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.
A clip released in the past by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) showed a televised graduation ceremony for a similar Hamas youth camp in Gaza. At the ceremony, suicide terror attacks against the “Zionist enemy” were glorified by Hamas officials.
Hamas has previously released a cartoon honoring its “military wing,” and also launched a program to teach “resistance” to Israel in Gaza’s public school system.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)