Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip, launched its annual summer camp venture recently, indoctrinating the coastal enclave's children and teens in the ways of its extremist ideology and for fun – offering some weapons training to "prepare kids for liberating Palestine."
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According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Hamas launched some 500 summer camps on July 23. Some 100,000 boys and girls of various ages are attending the "Saplings of Jerusalem" camps.
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MEMRI cited Hamas official Muhammad Farawneh as saying that holding the camps where an Israeli settlement once stood – "on soil that has been freed of the contamination of the occupation, is a sign that all of the [Palestinian] land will one day be regained."
Another Hamas official, head of the summer camp committee in Gaza's central district Muhammad Abu Mahmoud, said that the name "Saplings of Jerusalem" was chosen "to stress our deep-rooted rights in Jerusalem, and [convey] that the generation of liberation will continue to bear the banner until the occupation is removed from all of our occupied Palestinian land."
The summer camps "are intended to raise a generation that possesses awareness and is capable of liberating [Palestine]," a third Hamas official said, while a fourth mused, "Oh lion cubs, you are the generation of liberation, and with your help, we will liberate Al-Aqsa, Allah willing."
The report noted that like previous summer camps, this year's summer camps underscore religious and nationalist content alongside military and weapons training, as well as recreational activities.
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