Behind the Headlines: Hamas exploits children for terrorism
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Behind the Headlines: Hamas exploits children for terrorism

  • 9/18/2007
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    In a special episode on Hamas TV marking the beginning of the school year, a two-year old toddler named "Ahmad" was praised for his expertise in the area of "Holy War" (Jihad).
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    Palestinian children in Hamas-controlled Gaza are being taught to take an active role in terrorist operations against Israel and are thus placed in mortal danger by those who should be responsible for their safety and well-being. The children, too young to fully understand even the meaning of death, are taught to asipre to such "martyrdom" in children's television shows produced by the Hamas.

    Every Monday afternoon Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas' main television station, broadcasts a children's program called "The Gifted". In a special episode marking the beginning of the school year, a two-year old toddler named "Ahmad" was featured. Ahmad was praised for his expertise in the area of "holy war" (jihad).

    In addition, instead of being told to keep away from Kassam rocket launchers, Palestinian children's lives are deliberately endangered by the Hamas-supported rocket teams which have been known to send young children to retrieve launchers after the rockets are fired. The terror organizations make cynical use of children, knowing well that Israeli counter-terrorist strikes will target these specific locations in order to prevent further rocket fire.

    Even worse, the terrorist groups operating in the Hamas-controlled Gaza have recruited children to become armed participants, and even human bombs, in their terrorist operations against Israelis.

    The following recent events serve as illustration:

    • On the night between August 28 and August 29, following warnings of plans to carry out a terror attack against them, IDF soldiers engaged in anti-terror activity in the northern Gaza Strip  spotted a Palestinian youth approaching them. The soldiers confronted the 15-year-old and discovered that he was carrying two explosive devices, which he apparently intended to detonate in a suicide bombing attack against the forces.
    • On the afternoon of August 28, the IDF targeted several Kassam launchers in the Beit Hanun industrial area in the Gaza Strip aimed at Israel.  During the attack a number of figures, later identified as Palestinian teenagers, approached the rocket launchers and were killed.
    • Exactly one week earlier (August 21), two Palestinian children (aged 10 and 12) were killed under similar circumstances by Israeli tank fire. The IDF targeted the location from which  Kassam rockets had been launched at Israel that day, one hitting a nursery school in Sderot, which was empty during the August summer holiday.