Gaza City – Hamas Presents: Equal Opportunity Terrorism?

Gaza City – A total of 35 female trainees completed a course at a Hamas-operated training camp on Sunday night that included the use of weapons, combat drills, intelligence gathering, and cyber warfare.

Hamas and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, part of its military wing, are both designated as illegal terrorist organizations by Israel, the European Union, and the United States. The terrorist organization which rules over the Gaza Strip regularly organizes summer camps for school children similar to military boot camps and that include live-fire training.

According to Palestinian publications, the military training program – the second of its kind in Gaza – was a week long and intended for girls aged 12 to 18. In order to qualify for the program, the girls, who were all related to high-ranking Hamas officials, were required to have “outstanding academic achievements” and to be “the elites of Palestinian female students.”

“The goal of the military camp is to prepare girls for self-defense and for future battles against the occupation,” camp director Rajaa al-Halabi told Al-Monitor following the first session of the camp in August, 2015.

The 2016 summer session of the female training camp was called “The Flowers of Palestine” by the Hamas military leadership and focused on two primary objectives: supporting Hamas cyber-warfare operations against Israel and providing combat and defense skills for wives and daughters of high-value Hamas officials in particular.

According to Hamas, however, the girls will not be integrated into the military wing as full combatants.

“The goal of the program is to give these young ladies the tools and skills that will allow them to defend their homes and families when the need arrives as well as to open up new horizons for them,” asserted Hamas Training Director Abdul-Karim Al Shaer at the graduation ceremony.

As an Islamic organization, Hamas mostly avoids placing women in traditionally male roles. Nevertheless, Hamas made use of female terrorists in the Second Intifada of the early 2000s after much objection within the organization.

Hamas assured readers on its official website that the girls remained separate from male trainees and were always dressed in accordance with strict Muslim codes of modesty throughout training.