Copy
View this email in your browser
Dear Representative:

Like residents of many countries in the Northern Hemisphere, Americans are preparing their summer plans: vacations, getaways, and camps for the kids. 

People in Gaza Strip are no different, except the camps they send their kids to are special terror camps run by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade, the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization. As an al-Qassam Brigade spokesman put it in his opening remarks of the summer camp, delivered in English: “The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade announced the launch of the liberation camps for the youth in Gaza Strip… This program is also intended to protect the young generation from falling into traps laid by the Israeli occupation, and help them acquire a number of skills that will make them competent and conscious through a range of religious, security, and (unclear word) programs, including physical training, self-defense skills, first aid program, and crisis management skills.” The spokesman also underscored, more than once, that one of the missions of this camp is to strengthen the kids’ willingness to make sacrifices when needed.

Luckily, there is abundant footage online of their “physical training, self-defense skills and first-aid program” and demonstrations of what constitutes “making sacrifices when needed.” In this video clip, you will see some of the 25,000 kids who attend the camp, some younger than 13, training to operate assault rifles, assault buildings and learning military formations and the combat doctrine of Hamas. It is also reported that in the camp, the children learn to traipse down buildings and to launch shoulder-fired missiles.

We have now heard it from the horse’s mouth, not from an NGO with a political agenda. A spokesman of the al-Qassam Brigades said it on camera, and there is footage to show it. In what world do parents send their 13-year-old children to become martyrs and terrorists?

The next time you see pictures of children in Gaza who were killed during a round of escalation, ask yourself if these kids are truly innocent, or perhaps, could they have been placed on the battlefield by Hamas to implement all they have learned in their summer camps.

Hamas has a history of manipulating and hijacking public infrastructure and resources to promote terror. In the recent round between Hamas and Israel, the Israelis exposed a Hamas-dug terror tunnel under an UNRWA school. Not only does that endanger the kids in the school (the possibility of the building collapsing or being targeted by Israel as an act of defense), but it also comes to show the blind eye UNRWA has turned when Hamas was digging the tunnel. Digging a tunnel requires tremendous labor and maybe even the blasting of TNT. It is hard to believe that UNRWA officials in the school were unaware of the tunnel below their feet.

After the escalation, the UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General thanked Hamas for the “ongoing willingness to cooperate.” Again, these are not speculations, these are quotes from the officials themselves.

It does not stop there. While Gazan officials estimated the cost of rebuilding Gaza after the recent escalation at $322 million, Qatar and Egypt have each pledged $500 million to rebuild Gaza, the US pledged more than $200 million and a number of other countries have pledged more. In fact, all of the countries around the world have pledged about $1.4 billion to rebuild Gaza. Because the aid is not coordinated, Hamas ended up profiting from launching rockets at Israel.

Our own Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a troubling report earlier this year regarding the lack of oversight of US aid, and how it is finding its way into the wrong hands.  

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which is a commitment that, among other things, states or armed groups “should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities anyone under the age of 18.” The Protocol entered into force in 2002, and has now been ratified by the majority of countries. Furthermore, according to the UN, “recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law - treaty and custom -and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.”

Earlier this week, on June 28, 2021, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council that “The International Community must not allow armed conflict to trample on children’s rights.”

Said the Secretary-General: “during 2020, almost 24,000 grave violations were committed against 19,300 children in the 21 situations.  This shocking, heart-breaking disregard for children’s rights at times of conflict continues with their recruitment and use, their killing and maiming, and the denial of humanitarian access.  Citing new and deeply concerning trends, he pointed to increasing numbers of child abductions and sexual violence.  At the same time, schools and hospitals are being attacked, looted, destroyed or used for military purposes, with girls’ educational and health facilities targeted disproportionately.”

For years, experts have written reports and warned about these issues. But now, hearing it directly from Hamas, it is time to take action. We can no longer stand on the sidelines and claim it is too absurd to be true. We must take action against Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade summer camps, against Hamas’s terrorism, and against Hamas abusing the aid given to Gazans through international organizations.

Sincerely, 
Benjamin Weil
Director of the Project for Israel's National Security
EMET: The Endowment for Middle East Truth


Sources:

https://twitter.com/LTCPeterLerner/status/1409021352510738438?s=03

https://www.timesofisrael.com/gazans-young-and-old-graduate-from-hamas-summer-camp/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/photos-show-hamas-tunnel-dug-underneath-courtyard-of-unwra-school-in-gaza/

https://honestreporting.com/breaking-unrwa-thanks-hamas-chief-for-ongoing-willingness-to-cooperate/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/20/death-destruction-in-gaza-as-israel-defies-truce-call-live

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-21-332

https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/opaccrc.aspx

https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/six-grave-violations/child-soldiers/

https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/sc14562.doc.htm

Twitter
Facebook
Website
Copyright © 2021 Endowment for Middle East Truth, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
Copyright © 2021 Endowment for Middle East Truth, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp