How children are being used by Hamas
It stands to reason that if you educate children, from the time they’re old enough to speak, you are going to have a ready-made army, willing to serve those to whom it will pledge its loyalties. This is what has been happening, not only in the Palestinian territories, beyond the Green Line but also with our neighbors in Gaza.
In Sunday’s NBC 'Meet the Press' program, during an interview with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, he said, it is known that “Hamas uses summer camps for Palestinian children as a method of ‘promoting the resistance and Jihadi culture’ among Gazan youths.”
Rather than engaging in sports, music or traditional children’s games, this is how Palestinian children are being trained to think, act and respond to those whom they are being told are the enemy, which must be eradicated at all costs. Is it any wonder, then, that peace and co-existence cannot be forged in an atmosphere that promotes exactly the opposite?
Every year, millions of children around the world attend summer camps to learn, have fun, and grow. In Gaza, the Hamas terrorist camps systematically train children to be martyrs and to learn the “values of Jihad”.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) January 7, 2024
In an interview today with @kwelkernbc on @NBCNews… pic.twitter.com/xNaSB8afBZ
This “culture of resistance,” as it is called, is said to prepare these kids “spiritually, mentally and physically” in their future fight against the Jewish nation. So, one can only imagine what fills the hours of these summer camp days – shooting, accompanied by terror simulations, ideology 101 and rigorous exercise would be how these kids wile away their summer breaks. It is literally the creation of future terrorists to replace those who will eventually be killed during an IDF incursion, such as the type that is presently happening in Gaza.
But it’s not only at these camps where this kind of active participation is taking place. It has been reported that a “circle of observers and messengers” are staked around the various Hamas tunnels in the area of Khan Younis, and who constitutes these guardians, ready to alert the enemy of impending danger as Israeli soldiers advance closer? They are not only men, but women and boys of all ages who “stand on the roofs of houses or under the cover of buildings with a walkie-talkie or a phone.” Crossing streets, accompanied by children or even babies in their carriages, is another tactic being employed which is meant to arouse less suspicion.
The use of innocent children, as decoys or purposeful plants, to throw off other more malevolent activity, is just one example of a dehumanization, which holds their lives as nothing more than disposable props that serve a purpose in the fight for total dominance of a region where Jews are not allowed to exist. It casts a glaring spotlight on the fact that their children are less valued than their hate for us, which is greater. That says a lot!
Of course, if one of these children were to be injured or killed, the hysterical cries would be heard worldwide. Israel would be marked as childkillers who care nothing for innocents and have no working conscience, while, all the time, those who exploited them, for their own gain, would go unpunished and unaccused. It’s no wonder, then, that children are utilized in such a depraved manner, because they provide a win for Hamas by covering for them, and an additional win for pointing to the wrong group as the perpetrators of evil.
But these child soldiers, who are recruited, at the youngest age possible, are given a sense of collective identity within youth movements, their schools, which teach them the principles of effective hatred, and by the aforementioned summer camps where they are taught the practical aspects of warfare.
Amidst the shocking discovery of many items, which have been uncovered as a result of the IDF scouring the buildings and homes of Gaza, “damning documents, video footage and photographs of Palestinian children used by two U.S.- designated terrorist organizations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as trained fighters have been disclosed.”
It is how we know the larger involvement of children, used by these terror groups, because it is well-documented. One example was the use of shopping bags, made to appear as if children were going to the market while, all the time, they were transporting explosives. It is said that “over 170 minors are active in the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” which begs the question: “Who thinks that using innocent children to promote hate, prepare them for battle, at their tender ages to eventually risk their lives, while still minors, is the best way to raise a child?”
If you think about it, this practice is no different from the ancient pagan ritual of sacrificing one’s children to the Canaanite god of Molech. This phenomenon, although being employed today in a slightly different life form, is not new and is recorded in several biblical scriptures, as practices that were used by the Ammonites and Canaanites who, ironically, viewed Molech as a father figure. These children were left to die in a fire pit or made to “pass through the fire” as an act of purification.
The more common scripture against this abomination is found in Leviticus 20:2-5, which says: “Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molech is to be put to death. For by sacrificing his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molech, and if they fail to put him to death, I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech.”
Why is Hamas’ use of children any different when death is often the fate with which they are met? It isn’t! And it’s about time that the rest of the world recognizes the evil that has re-emerged in our time, devaluing our most precious possession – the next generation, which is being raised to destroy rather than build and to hate life rather than regard it as a divine gift.
It is only up to us, the world’s inhabitants, who have a moral responsibility to judge and determine that this type of human weaponry is demonic and recorded as being worthy of death by those who employ it.
Our voices must not go unheard as this horrendous crime against children continues, because if we are silent in the midst of such wickedness, then we, too, may very well be held responsible on that day when the books will be opened and we are called to give account, not only for what we did but also for what we failed to do.
May we all remember: “Children are a gift from the Lord and a reward from him.” Psalm 127:3
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
