Young people pose with weapons at an exhibition organized in Gaza. Photo: Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Families were asked to pose for selfies with guns and rocket-propelled grenades as Hamas held its first-ever weapons exhibition since Israeli-Palestinian violence escalated.
Hamas gang members Ezzedine al-Qassam, dressed in camouflage and balaclavas, mingled with the audience, inviting them to hold sniper rifles, RPGs and automatic weapons in their hands.
In the photographs, children look through the scopes with a wide smile on their faces and hold them in their hands a weapon twice as large.
< p>“Resistance is an image and a memory. Take a souvenir photo with al-Qassam's many weapons,” the group's social media invitation read.
The event is the first of its kind in Gaza and coincides with Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic holiday. The celebration is one of several exhibitions held by the group in the Gaza Strip, featuring drones, RPGs and Russian Kornet missiles.
Young people look through the sights and hold weapons in their hands. Photo: Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
In recent weeks, one of the worst acts of violence since the early 2000s has taken place in the occupied West Bank: 16 Palestinians and four Israelis. die within six days at the end of June.
Israeli settlers also rampaged through Palestinian cities with deadly attacks.
While militant support often rises during such periods, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the number two militant group in Gaza, officially announced over the weekend that it had expanded and launched operations in the West Bank.
People were asked to pick up sniper rifles, RPGs and automatic weapons. Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Quds Net News via ZUMA Press/Shutterstock
Islamic Jihad opposes the peace process with Israel and as a non-governmental body is focused on military confrontation. Hamas, on the other hand, has been trying to curb the conflict in recent years.
Tzachi Khanegbi, Israel's national security adviser, estimated in May that the PIJ had about 6,000 missiles.
Hamas, he says, has four times the arsenal, as well as long-range missiles, which the PIJ is not thought to have.
Violence in the West Bank has been sharp this year. increased. and is unlikely to be settled after Ziad al-Nakhale, the leader of the PIJ, said that he began to create cells in the West Bank on the orders of Iran. .jpg” />The event was organized by members of the Hamas brigades Ezzedine al-Qassam. Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Quds Net News via ZUMA Press/Shutterstock
The leader of the Iranian-backed PIJ, the second largest militant group in Gaza, was pictured meeting with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, June 16.
Just three days later, they claimed responsibility for an impromptu roadside bomb that wounded eight Israeli soldiers during a raid in the West Bank.
The incident led to an escalation in tensions in the West Bank, culminating in Israel's launch of missiles from a combat helicopter for the first time in almost two decades.
An interview with al-Nakhal published in the Arab press on Saturday claimed that Khamenei had “confirmed” his desire to The West Bank went from “a state of calm to a state of resistance”. .
Al-Nahala claimed that the PIJ had already begun to create “combat battalions” in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
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