RSS
Fatah Hosts a Palestinian Summer Camp for Child Soldiers
Gazan youth practice military drills at a Hamas summer camp. Photo: Hamas.
While children worldwide are participating in sports and leisure activities at summer camps, children living under the Palestinian Authority (PA) are in a “Fatah Army” summer camp with armed members of the PA Security Services, being taught to be terrorists.
This goal was explicitly declared during the camp’s closing ceremony, when the children were told the camp’s goal was to create a generation that will “continue the path of the Martyrs and prisoners” — in other words, the path of killed and imprisoned terrorists:
Posted text: “The Fatah Nablus Branch concluded the activities of the ‘Fatah Army’ summer camp, which lasted three days and included more than two hundred male and female campers …
Fatah Nablus Branch Secretary-General Muhammad Hamdan emphasized that the ‘Fatah Army’ camp is part of the effort to prepare a national generation that will carry the message, adhere to the basic principles of its people, and continue the path of the Martyrs and prisoners [i.e., terrorists] towards freedom and independence.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Facebook page, Aug. 4, 2025]
Pictures from the “Fatah Army” summer camp accompanied the post, showing boys and girls wearing military uniforms while participating in the camp activities. Significantly, the pictures show that PA Security Forces (PASF) personnel also took part in the camp.
In one picture, a female PASF member in full uniform is seen marching with the young campers. In another, three male PASF members wearing flak jackets and holding Kalashnikov assault rifles are sitting with the children:
As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) recently exposed in a detailed report, the PA Security Forces (PASF) are deeply and fundamentally involved in terrorism.
Likewise, Fatah officials have bragged that most of the dead terrorists in recent years were from the PASF or Fatah. In this context, it is clear why Fatah specifically invited them to teach the children to “continue the path of the Martyrs and prisoners.”
It goes without saying that the indoctrination of child soldiers is cynical child abuse and a severe breach of international humanitarian law.
But that has not stopped Fatah — the ruling party of the PA that is supported by international donors — from running such indoctrination camps for child soldiers in recent years.
Young boys performed drills with assault rifles in a 2023 summer camp run by Fatah and the PASF. At another Fatah camp that same year, boys were taught to handle and disassemble Kalashnikov assault rifles, and received close combat training:
Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, Aug. 3, 2023
PASF members let hundreds of children pose with their assault rifles at a Fatah camp the year prior. And another joint Fatah-PASF summer camp in 2022 gave children weapons training so as to teach them to fight the Israelis — “the sons of dogs,” as a Fatah representative termed them.
These summer camps are part of a large-scale PA and Fatah strategy of deep indoctrination, aiming to turn Palestinian children into child soldiers. PMW exposed this indoctrination in detail in its 2022 Special Report for UN World Children’s Day.
The indoctrination has continued unchecked, as seen when Fatah had a girl chant a poem at an event this January celebrating the 60th anniversary of its first terror attack.
The girl called for children to turn their seemingly innocent toys and possessions, such as bicycles, ribbons, and baby bottles into weapons against Israel:
Girl: “Students of the Gaza Strip, teach us a bit of what you know, for we have forgotten. Teach us how to be men, for we have men who have turned into dough. Teach us how the stone becomes a precious diamond in the hands of the children. How the child’s bicycle turns into a mine and the silk ribbon turns into an ambush. How the spout of the baby bottle, when placed under arrest, turns into a knife.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Jan. 5, 2025]
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.