Hamas plans to establish a military academy in the Gaza Strip to train and educate schoolchildren.The Hamas-run Palestine Times reported this.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced on Thursday that the military academy, the first of its kind in the Gaza Strip, would prepare the children for the “phase of liberating Palestine.”
He said that children in grades 7-9 could join the school and graduate with a diploma or a BA in military affairs.
Haniyeh made this announcement during a ceremony in the Gaza Strip marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. More than 10,000 schoolchildren attended the ceremony, which included a “military parade” by some of the teenagers.
The prime minister said he has instructed the Hamas-run Education Ministry to draw up plans for the establishment of the military academy. Haniyeh said that the new academy would educate and prepare children for the establishment of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.”
Here's a photo of the "military parade" with armed teenagers:
This photo with Haniyeh was taken at the same ceremony:
Last month, senior Hamas commander Zaher Jabarin said in a video interview published later on the IDF blog that Hamas labors “day and night” in educating Palestinian children in Gaza to become suicide bombers.
I wish to talk about our choice, the choice of resistance. There was training of the divine generation, the true generation of martyrdom-seekers, through which we can participate in the battle. First, before anything else, before any Jihadi action, before the transfer of weapons, money, etc., and everything required for action, first and foremost is the individual person. The Islamic Movement [Hamas] took care of the education of this youngster who will participate in this battle, and afterwards we found out, as we always say, that the martyrdom-seekers stood in line, moreover, the thought among themselves who will be first to perform the suicide operation or Jihad operation. There was a quarrel between these Jihad warriors. We labored day and night to build the person, who will participate in this battle, and indeed, after 26 years, today the results are clear and visible to the entire world, that Hamas indeed has succeeded to build in this period of 26 years, what others wouldn’t have succeeded to build in centuries, such a person and such a resistance.
The Palestinian youngsters, the resistance and Jihad warriors, fight and quarrel over performing a courageous suicide operation. No doubt when Rabin said he has no solution for this weapon (suicide bombings), it’s because you want to kill this man, but he himself is essentially coming to die, so how can you scare him and how do you want to deal with this weapon? There is no treatment, and you cannot find a treatment for this weapon. With God’s grace, Hamas originated the use of this weapon.
We in Hamas are now convinced that our leaders are preparing for the battle of liberation, not resistance. We will remain “The Islamic Resistance Movement” — Hamas — but we now have the concept of liberation, and we are preparing for the battle of liberation and entering Jerusalem, God willing. I am convinced that you will interview me — if Allah wished that we stay alive — from the courts of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem. The Palestinian people and the Arab people are now convinced that Israel will be defeated, and indeed it will be defeated, and we will succeed to liberate our country. We are now preparing for the battle of liberation, and not just the resistance as we have done in the past.