Al-Quds Intifada Summer Camps In Gaza Offer Training In Stabbing, Firearms, Tunnel Combat | MEMRI

On July 16, 2016, Hamas’s military wing, the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, launched its annual “Pioneers of Liberation” summer camps in Gaza. This year’s camps were dedicated to the “Al-Quds Intifada” (i.e., Jerusalem Intifada), which is the Palestinian name for the wave of attacks against Israelis, especially in Jerusalem, in the past few months. The camps lasted two weeks and were attended by some 30,000 children and youths; activities included firearms training and other military training, civil defense exercises, and lessons in religion and in battle heritage. According to ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam officials, “the goal of the camps is to stoke the embers of jihad among the generation of liberation, to inculcate Islamic values and to prepare the army of victory for liberating Palestine.”[1]