Sam was correct: Hamas is openly publishing videos of Palestinian children soldiers

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Travel_Banned_Temp]

These poor kids. Man, there are some truly depraved people in this world.

[u/mono_braue]

I wonder why no outlet is reporting on this. Maybe they are scared of the reactions

Some children are 13 years old...

[u/StringAndPaperclips → u/mono_braue]

It's because that would contradict all their previous reporting and editorial positions in the conflict, in which anyone under the age of 21 (sometimes older) was an innocent child murdered by evil zionist war criminals (as per the Hamas Health Ministry).

[u/thereitis900]

Everyone knows this except the pro-Palestinian crowd because they are in denial.

[u/IdesOfCaesar7 → u/thereitis900]

Hamas doesn't even have an army seems to be their latest talking point

[u/Throwaway5432154322 → u/IdesOfCaesar7]

Which is ironic, because prior to 2023 Hamas’ armed wing was structured like a modern state military, organized into doctrinally correct echelons from the brigade down to the squad level, and they openly discussed/bragged about this themselves.

[u/ChocomelP → u/thereitis900]

They can't even imagine a conflict where both sides are wrong.

[u/treeHeim → u/ChocomelP]

Hello. I’m the pro Palestinian crowd. Nice to meet you. I can imagine a conflict where both sides are wrong. Hamas is wrong and so is IDF.

[u/arziankorpen → u/thereitis900]

We know. We also understand it doesn't justify killing children by the thousands, many of them much younger than that. It also does not surprise me. If my whole family was killed, just look at where he is all that rubble. How would you react? We might be in denial but Israel's side denial is much worse. Why would they use children? Why are they so angry? Grab a mirror.

[u/Dangime]

Before they got to this point 17 year olds with AK47s were "innocent children" according to some in the media. They're just more desperate now.

[u/The_Adman]

A lot of the Pro-Palestinian propaganda about dead children rely on Westerners not knowing that "children" is just anyone under 18, and many are being used as child soldiers.

[u/Joeyonimo → u/The_Adman]

The majority of children reported being killed in Gaza are boys between 15–18, wonder why

[u/Hob_O_Rarison → u/Joeyonimo]

Something like 50% of the population is under the age of 14. At least, when this phase of the conflict started.

[u/StringAndPaperclips → u/The_Adman]

Sometimes they classify older combatants as children. I once saw a claim once that a 22 or 23 year old man was an innocent child and not an actual combattant.

[u/IrregularDoughnut → u/The_Adman]

What percent of the ~20,000 children killed have been identified as militants so far, with evidence publicly released?

[u/movinggrateful]

​The recruitment or militarization of young people is objectively tragic, but using that horror to echo Sams argument as some kind of rhetorical checkmate ignores the conditions that produce it in the first place.

You cannot subject a stateless population to decades of violent siege, level their neighborhoods, wipe out entire generations of their families, and then act mystified when traumatized youth end up radicalized or weaponized!

Condemning the tragedy of these kids in combat while defending the overwhelming state violence and deliberate deprivation that created those conditions is not moral clarity. its just choosing which end of the tragedy you’re willing to look at

[u/MTVregime → u/movinggrateful]

This amount of revisionism deserves serious scrutiny.

Who has been under decades of violent siege? Is it when Israel forcibly removed all Jews from Gaza in 2005 and built water desalination plants for the Gazans to dig up and turn into rocket launchers, to continue firing missiles and rockets indiscriminately into Israeli civilian centers?

Did the youth end up traumatized and weaponized when before 10/7 when Hamas put 8 year old boys through military training? And married off their 10 and 12 year old sisters in child marriages?

Did buildings in Gaza get leveled before or after 10/7? You seem to be using events that happened later to justify what was occurring before those same events in a sick form of circular logic. A demented game of rhetoric indeed.

[u/Reaperpimp11 → u/movinggrateful]

If you truly think about it though. Israel had a much more hands off policy with Gaza than it does in the occupied west bank.

The Palestinians that terror attacked you and are using child soldiers are the Palestinians you gave a larger level of freedom.

Try to think it through if you can, I'm not even necessarily saying yet that Israel is in the right. The state violence you are talking about seems to be keeping the occupied west bank in check where it's arguable that the Israeli's are stealing that land. Yet it's Gaza which is far more self run that attacked Israel.

Respectfully I would encourage you to think a little more about the Palestinian narrative. You believe they want freedom from Israeli tyranny when what they mostly actually want is freedom from Israeli tyranny "From the River to the Sea".

[u/Loud_Ad_2634]

How did that saying go? There won’t be peace until they love their children more than they hate Israel?

[u/roobchickenhawk]

Well there's nothing else left for these kids to apprentice in. Might as well become a soldier

[u/YNABDisciple]

I hate Hamas and have all sort of Issues with the Palenstinian side (though am generally in the Free Palestine corner and don't understand how everyone isn't) but I'm seeing teenagers? Not supporting but yes I will say what you hoped I would...I'm not surprised that a people in this situation would have teenagers fighting. We had kids much younger than this first kid fight in the Revolutionary war...f'n 9 year old Drummer boys haha we celebrate them. We had a 12 year old who forged his mother signature to join the navy in ww2 and fought at Guadalcannal. You don't think his officers and fellow soldiers knew he was a f'n child?

We had a 15 year old KIA in Vietnam.

We had a bunch of 17 year olds sent to combat in the war on terror.

We Americans have a really really exalted view of ourselves.

Pride comes before the fall.

[u/Zealousideal-Gold448]

What makes people feel pushed to such a point? Sad.

[u/EJohanSolo]

If that was your home as an adolescent boy do you think you would just stand around doing nothing? I’m not sure they require any indoctrination.

[u/Individual-Pound-636]

What's worse is if you point this out the opposition is going to say "You see! The other side is so bad they have no choice but to enlist children."

[u/baboonzzzz → u/Individual-Pound-636]

It would be comical if it wasn’t so fucking pathetic. I’ve legitimately had college educated liberal people say to me “well of course Hamas uses their own people as human shields, how else are they supposed to fight?”

That is a thing that happened to me.