11:44am UK, Tuesday July 13, 2004

Children as young as 10 are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian cause.

180 palestinians child soldiers

Sky's Emma Hurd

Sky News has gained access to a young people's camp in Gaza, where the only lesson taught is how to kill Israelis. 

Sky's Middle East Correspondent Emma Hurd said the camp, at an undisclosed location, had been set up to drill children in the ways of war.           

The recruits, some of whom are dwarfed by their AK-47 assault rifles, are taught how to carry out ambushes.           

They are also made to do an obstacle course, crawling under barbed wire and leaping through hoops of fire while their instructors fire live bullets overhead.Hurd witnessed one training session in which a militant, dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull cap, was ambushed in his car.Gunmen pulled the "settler" from his vehicle and Hurd was told if this had been real he would have been killed.           

She spoke to two 10-year-old recruits.           

One of them, Mustafa, said he wanted to shoot down Israeli aircraft and blow up tanks.           

The camp is run by a group called the Popular Resistance Committee, which said the next generation of Palestinians needed to know how to fight the Israeli "occupation".           

The boys even "graduate" at the end of their training, receiving a certificate from the camp commander.