Under the 16-year-old Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian resistance factions found a way for Palestinian children to feel a semi-natural life in this occupied city by launching summer camps under the title “Shield of Jerusalem” across the city.
The Palestinian resistance factions have organized “Shield of Jerusalem” summer camps since July 7, which included entertainment and educational activities aimed to mitigate the psychological and social effects on Palestinian children under the suffocating blockade, especially after the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza that traumatized them.
On May 7, Israeli occupation warplanes launched deadly airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip that lasted five consecutive days, killing 34 Palestinians, injuring over 200 others, destroying 51 Palestinian housing units, and partially damaging 840 others.
The summer camps have been organized under the name “Shield of Jerusalem” in reference to the occupied city of Jerusalem, emphasizing that it is the focus of the Palestinian cause and the eternal capital of Palestine.
About 100,000 Gaza-based Palestinian children, most of whom are in preparatory and secondary school, have been participating in the camps across the Gaza Strip.
These camps basically aim to instill national and Islamic values in the hearts of the rising Palestinian generation and to grow their attachment to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the focus of the Palestinian issue, said Hamas.
The movement added that such camps protect the new generation from systematic Israeli attacks and misleading policies to keep them far away from their issue.
On the other side, Israeli media claims that the Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza organize such camps to weaponize Palestinian children and teach them how to kill Israeli forces and settlers.
The Israeli Channel 13 published a report prepared by Arab affairs commentator Hezi Simantov about the summer camps in Gaza, saying that Hamas has launched summer camps under the title “Shield of Jerusalem” to instruct the boys on the need to liberate Jerusalem and the entire Palestinian territory.
It’s reported that the Israeli occupation uses children in killing operations, as do terrorist organizations, by organizing camps and events specially designed to incite children to kill Palestinians.
A video clip, previously published by the Israeli Haaretz channel, showed Israeli soldiers and special forces training hundreds of primary school students in the “Ramat Hasharon” settlement, to carry weapons and how to shoot live fire at Palestinians.
