IDF accuses Hamas, Islamic Jihad of using child soldiers

In a briefing to international media outlets, the IDF shows reporters footage recovered from the Gaza Strip showing what it says is the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups indoctrinating young people into their terrorist ideology.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have for years openly run and promoted summer camps in the Gaza Strip where children undergo military training.

The IDF says at the summer camps, children learn to fire weapons, use tunnels, fight against tanks, and kidnap soldiers as part of early training for the terror groups’ military wings.

Citing intelligence, the IDF says “a large number of minors are active” in Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Even during the war, the Hamas terror organization uses minors for various tasks, for example sending children for the purposes of conveying messages and ammunition,” the IDF says.

The IDF says the interrogation of a Hamas commander revealed that the terror group had used children to deliver explosive devices under the guise of bags of vegetables.

It also says children had been sent by terror groups to battlefields in Gaza after an attack, “to assess the damage and report it to the terrorists who are hiding in shelters.”