Not Your Typical Kindergarten: Gaza Children Trained to Wage Jihad against Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel – You might expect a kindergarten graduation to display art work or put on a play, but one kindergarten in the Gaza Strip held a very different kind of ceremony.

It wasn't your typical kindergarten graduation.

"And now for the number you have long been waiting for, the military training show, directed by brother Bilal Majed Ashour," a teenager tells participants. "We salute his enormous effort."

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) posted a video recently of the graduating class at the Islamic al-Hoda kindergarten in Gaza. MEMRI found the video on the kindergarten's YouTube account and Facebook page.

The video shows the children, clad in Islamic Jihad fatigues, being handed assault rifles and beginning to go through military drills.

The young commandos stage an attack on an Israeli tank. They plant mines and launch mortar shells.

Next comes a simulated raid on an Israeli army base. After killing the sentry, the children enter the base and emerge with a kidnapped Israeli soldier as their prisoner.

Some of the action incorporates Helmet Cam footage, which reveals the type of training given to these young Palestinian children.

Afterward, the leader of Islamic Jihad delivered a speech in Gaza saying the children were sending a message of love.

"The love that we bear in our hearts is enough to be distributed among all the people of Earth," he says. 

Then he blames Israel.

"However, it is this Zionist enemy that kills the children, the women, and the elderly and is occupying the land. It is this enemy that forces us to bear arms and protect our mothers and fathers, our elderly, and the honor of our womenfolk," he explains.

Their goal is to train children to become future fighterss against Israel – the Zionist enemy. The teenage emcee of the event left no doubt as to the children's mission.

"Stab! Kill the occupier with stones and knives. Use any available weapon. From the edge of fire, when the blood calls to arms, the morning rises," he tells them.