Hamas has introduced a program in Gaza Strip schools called Al-Futuwwa, which provides military training for tens of thousands of adolescent boys. Its objective is to raise a new generation of Hamas operatives and supporters, and to ensure Hamas’ future control of the Gaza Strip

[intro to the following piece: David Bedein notes: e Al-Futuwwa, which provides military training for tens of thousands of adolescent boys, is also applied in the UNRWA run schools in Gaza]

Since September 2012 Hamas has run a new program called Al-Futuwwa (“youth,” “courage”) in high schools in the Gaza Strip. In the program, tens of thousands of adolescent Gazan boys receive theoretical and practical military training.

The program has three components: military classes are held weekly in the schools, there are two-week training camps held during school breaks, and practical activities carried out with operatives of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military-terrorist wing. An article in the British newspaper The Guardian recently reported that the weekly classes are part of the curriculum for 37,000 boys aged 15 to 17, of whom about 5,000 have participated in the training camps. They train with Kalashnikov assault rifles and learn how to use hand grenades and detonate IEDs.

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