Hamas introduces voluntary weapons training in Gaza high schools
Running through the schoolyard, the youngster points his AK-47 assault rifle at a target as the other students quickly get onto the ground.
In the Gaza Strip, where conflict with Israel is always a possibility, the military-style exercise in a high school is part of a program sanctioned by the Hamas Islamist government to teach students how to use weapons.
“We are in an occupied country and always need to teach our children how to protect the nation using all means available to us,” said Lieutenant Mohammed al-Seiqali, head of weapons training in the school in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
During the schoolyard training session only one of the weapons - the AK-47 aimed by the youngster - is real, and there is no live ammunition. Lying on their stomachs his classmates follow his lead by pointing their mock guns, made out of wood, at imaginary targets in the distance.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/2013/03/12/Hamas-introduces-voluntary-weapons-training-in-Gaza-high-schools.html
