The Status of Children in Gaza

Incitement in Formal Education

Hamas' indoctrination of children begins at a young age, when children are exposed to formal and informal education that lauds jihad and incites children against Israel. As of 2013, over 55,000 students in grades eight through ten use textbooks that define Palestine as a state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, do not acknowledge Israel's existence, glorify violent Arab riots, and describe the Jewish scriptures as fabricated. These books are used in all of Hamas' 400 schools. Children often learn in schools named after terrorists, such as an elementary school and a junior high school that were recently named after Munich Massacre planner Abu Iyad.

The Hamas religious authority, the waqf, has carried out exorcism campaigns, in which preachers perform exorcism rites on children at schools in Gaza. Speeches delivered during these ceremonies proclaim a desire to drive children to Islamic repentance. In reality, the rites instill fear in children who do not understand their wrongdoings, and ultimately encourage compliance with Hamas' Islamist doctrine, which is presented as the "Islamic alternative."

Incitement in Informal Education

Outside the classroom as well, children are instilled with violent ideology at official Hamas events and through Hamas media.

In 2015, Hamas posted on its Facebook page pictures of a young boy, about five years old, wearing a military uniform and carrying an automatic gun. The pictures were captioned, "These are our lion cubs. We have brought them up on the love of Jihad and martyrdom." This message was on display at the Eighth Childhood Festival of the Islamic Association in Khan-Yunis in April 2016, where Gazan children performed a play that included stabbing and executing Israeli soldiers. A video posted of the event shows young children pretending to be Hamas fighters and features one girl saying "Forward, my child, to the duel. You will die as a Martyr (Shahid) and blow up the enemies."

In July 2016, Hamas turned its network of tunnels into a summer attraction for children, allowing them to walk through and view a display of weapons used to fight against Israel. 

At Hamas' 29^th anniversary celebration, dozens of children were seen wielding automatic weapons and donning Hamas uniforms. At one official ceremony, Hamas MP Khalil al-Hayya presented his grandson with the sword of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and said, "This sword is the sword of da'wa and victory... We shall pass it down to the next generation of men, women, boys, and girls." A year later, at Hamas' 30th anniversary celebration, children were active participants in the military parade and messages were explicitly targeted at children. During his speech, former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said “I call upon the youth of the nation, the Intifada Youth in Gaza, Jerusalem and everywhere, to organize parades and demonstrations to topple the American decision. Jihad and resistance are the ways of our nation to liberate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa."

Children in Gaza are taught to glorify terrorism and aspire to martyrdom themselves. After 22-year-old Baha Alyan murdered three Israelis in a 2015 terror attack and was subsequently killed, a group of young scouts held a symbolic funeral for him in Gaza. Hamas officials also praise child terrorists, such as when spokesman Husam Badran praised the two 14-year-old terrorists Omar Rimawi and Ihad Sabah responsible for murdering Israeli Tuvia Weissman, and lauded the courage of the "intifada youth." In July 2016, in an explicit call to violence, Hamas issued a press release calling for the "youth" to avenge “crimes against our elders” through “resistance in all its forms.”

In the media, Hamas children's TV has become known for its violent content, including incitement to martyrdom and violence, glorification of terror, and even animal abuse. In 2016, Hamas aired a video on its official TV station featuring a young boy throwing rocks at IDF soldiers and then transforming into an adult militant using advanced weapons. By depicting this process, Hamas sent a message that children should aspire to grow in the path of Jihad.

In another interview style children's show aired in March 2013, a young child presenter summarized a discussion with children of martyrs saying, "We should learn from them. We should wage Jihad and persevere, in order to liberate this land."

These are just some examples in a broader trend of incitement that extends to other forms of entertainment as well. A children's board game called "Reaching Jerusalem," a Hamas version of "Snakes and Ladders," employs Hamas tunnels and rockets as the ladders used to reach the Jerusalem, and IDF tanks and helicopters as the snakes that stand in their way. According to the games creator, Muhammad Ramadan Al-Amriti, the game is designed to "strengthen the children's military culture and love of jihad."

In addition to being educated in Hamas' ideology, Gazan children are taught that political dissent is not tolerated. During the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas summarily executed many alleged collaborators in front of crowds of hundreds of civilians, including children, publicly demonstrating the consequences of such activity. Dissent is punished among children as well. In 2013, two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, were arrested and tortured after writing anti Hamas slogans on walls and being accused of having contact with Fatah. All of these factors, spanning the breadth of the educational spectrum, serve to reinforce and instill Hamas' ideology in children, molding them into its loyal adherents.  

Child Training

Each year, Hamas runs paramilitary training programs for children throughout the Gaza Strip in an effort to groom the next generation of fighters. Hamas' summer camps have grown significantly in recent years, from 17,000 campers in 2015 to 30,000 in 2016. Children who attend these camps are educated in Hamas' doctrine and undergo intensive training in guerilla warfare, tunnel warfare, and weaponry, including heavy artillery and rockets. At one camp's graduation in the summer of 2014, Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad urged the youth to "study, conduct training, become experts and be inventive, with the help of Allah. The battle will be your battle. The Jihad will be your Jihad." Later in the ceremony, the graduates chanted "Our utmost desire is death for the sake of Allah, further demonstrating the extent to which they had been infused with Hamas' ideology."

A video posted by a pro-Hamas YouTube account reporting on the 2016 Hamas military summer camps features footage of children undergoing training in tunnels, combat, and other military activities. According to an instructor interviewed in the video, the camps also include "lectures in which we motivate the students to wage Jihad for the sake of Allah." Many children actually continue their training throughout the year. One program, the "Youth – Pledge and Loyalty to the Prisoners and Martyrs" program, included over 40,000 students from over 62 schools in 2016. While the program's spokesman claimed that the program was designed to instill morals and discipline in youth, he also explained that "this message is directed exclusively at our loathsome enemy." Indeed, video footage shows teenage participants undergoing intensive weapons and combat training.

Abuse of Civilian Buildings

Hamas is guilty of numerous violations of international law by exploiting schools, hospitals, mosques, homes and other civilian locations during wartime. Hamas has been caught on numerous buildings to store weapons, including rockets and heavy arms. The UN reported that in the 2014 Gaza War, at least three UNRWA schools were used to store rockets. As part of its unlawful tactics, Hamas also deliberately bases its military operations in densely populated civilian areas. IDF footage from July 27, 2014 showed militants firing three rockets from the "Abu Nur" school in Gaza. Again on June 1, 2017, UNRWA announced that it had uncovered a Hamas attack tunnel under two of its schools, the Maghazi Elementary Boys A&B School and the Maghazi Preparatory Boys School. Most recently, on October 15, 2017, UNRWA discovered yet another tunnel under one of schools, condemning the incident as "unacceptable." The clear abuse of facilities that are designated for children is a reprehensible practice.

In some cases, Hamas militants have been caught using children as human shields, such as a 2009 video showing a Hamas militant escorted by children away from a rocket launch site.

Though Hamas launches rockets towards Israeli cities and civilians, these rockets sometimes hit Gazan civilians instead. During the 2014 Gaza War, 11 children were killed by Hamas rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel. In one particularly bloody incident, eight children were killed in Shati Refugee Camp by a misfired rocket. In an earlier incident in 2010, more than a dozen people, including five children, were seriously wounded in an explosion on a Hamas military base, located in the crowded civilian town of Rafah, that Hamas claims was accidental. Children have also been used in the dangerous work of digging tunnels throughout Gaza and into Israeli territory, many dying as a result of tunnel collapses and inadequate working conditions.