August 31, 2008.
“I am learning how to fight the Jews and kill Jewish children,” said 11-year-old
Muhammad, one of dozens of children who have undergone terrorist training in
the last few days in Gaza.
“The parents of the Jewish children are the soldiers and officers who kill
us here. I want these parents to get a taste of what it’s like to have your
children killed, just as the Palestinians experience every day,” said the boy. He
and his young terrorist associates have undergone live firearms training,
including pistols and rifles, from the Salah al-Din Brigades, the armed wing of
the Popular Resistance Committees.
A photograph published in Ynet showed a young boy from the training aiming
an Israeli-supplied M-16 rifle straight at the camera, his small frame bent to
support the weight. “I would rather die fighting the occupation than die at home
from a missile, which is what happened to hundreds of Palestinian children,”
said Muhammad.
The training of child killers is part of a larger step-up in military training that
various terrorist groups in Gaza claim to be a response to the threat of a
wide-scale Israeli operation in the area. “Every day we hear threats from Israel
and witness its training exercises, therefore we must be prepared,” said Salah
al-Din Brigades spokesman Abu Abir. “This is an enemy that cannot be trusted
and is famous for breaking its promises. The enemy even killed the prophets; it
cannot be trusted,” he said.
Abu Abir insisted that his group’s training is not a provocation. “Why are they
permitted to train and we are not? They are preparing to invade territory that is
not theirs, and we are training to protect our lands and children.
“The Palestinian people support the resistance and understand that we are
responding to the occupation and that these children are being recruited to help
defend their homes and their land. We are preparing these children to fight the
enemy, as the enemy does not differentiate between children and adults; it
wants to annihilate the entire Palestinian nation.”
Meanwhile, the Arab terrorist group Islamic Jihad threatened to unleash “the
fires of hell” on Israel, as it conducted a military parade of 800 armed terrorists
Saturday in the south of terrorist-ruled Gaza. The parade took place on the site
of the former Jewish region of Gush Katif, which Jewish residents were forced
to abandon in 2005 when the Israeli government expelled all Jews from Gaza.
The terrorists also staged exercises with assault rifles, rocket-propelled
grenades and machine guns.
“We will unleash the fires of hell if the Zionist enemy continues its
crimes,” said Abu Hamzeh, the group’s military chief after the parade. “We’re
getting ready for the next round,” he added. “The Zionist enemy will have
neither peace nor security while it occupies our land.” Abu Hamzeh claimed his
group had “hundreds of rockets” aimed at southern Israel and ready to launch.
Khader Habib, a terrorist leader in the group’s political wing, said Islamic Jihad
“will not rest until we have liberated all of Palestine,” referring to the aim of
Arab terrorists and leaders to drive out or exterminate the Jewish residents of
Israel and create a Palestinian state in its place.
