One of the Gazan participants wears a PRESS vest. His behavior in the video does not indicate he is a media figure (he has no equipment for documenting the event). He may be wearing the vest to protect himself.
According to the video, "Taking equipment of the soldiers of the occupation from the post."
- During the Friday, August 3, 2018 “return march” a number of Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip crossed the security fence, threw an IED and Molotov cocktails near the fence, and then went back (IDF spokesperson, August 3, 2018). The Palestinian media reported that a number of Palestinians had crossed the fence and successfully entered an [abandoned] IDF post. According to the reports, some of the Palestinians took IDF equipment from the post (Dunia al-Watan, Shehab, August 3, 2018).
On August 3, 2018, the Facebook page of the Supreme National Authority of the Return March published a video documenting about 20 young Palestinians, including children, breaking through the security fence east of Rafah, three of them penetrating into Israeli territory. In the video they cut through the fence, then three youths enter an abandoned IDF post and afterwards return to the Gaza Strip. From watching the video, the ITIC concluded that the event was planned and organized, not spontaneous. The soundtrack of the video includes a song sung by a rock group of Arab singers from Turkey, which calls for Jews to be beaten and slaughtered because the land they live on belongs to the Palestinians.
Right: A young Gazan cuts through the barbed wire fence before three of them enter Israeli territory. Left: Three young Gazans climb up a abandoned IDF post in Israeli territory.
- This documented event, like others preceding it,[1] is an example of Hamas’ handling of children and adolescents for military missions during the “return marches,” endangering their lives. The deaths of several children and adolescents near the security fence while carrying out their missions fuels Hamas anti-Israeli propaganda and is exploited for Palestinian lawfare. Hamas and other Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip customarily accuse Israel of deliberately killing children. The Palestinians recently claimed they had sent the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague a “case file” about the events of the “return marches,” which included, among other things, information about the “crimes” Israel allegedly commits against children (al-Quds, date, August 1, 2018).
Click for Video
https://www.facebook.com/Palestine.Return2018/videos/2097561220571606/
What can be learned from the video?
- At the righthand side of the video the word “Rafah” appears, identifying the region where the event took place. At the left, “Rafah information” is written. A search of the internet reveals the video was posted at the head of the Facebook page of the “Rafah media network,” from where it was apparently copied to the Facebook page of the Supreme National Authority of the Return March. In ITIC assessment the video was produced by a media outlet in the Rafah region, apparently an outlet connected to Hamas and the organizers of the “return marches,” as part of the propaganda coverage of the event.
![The title of the video, "Exclusive pictures of revolutionary [Gazan] youths breaking into an Israeli army post in eastern Rafah and taking control of equipment belonging to the occupation soldiers."](https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2018/08/word-image-1534077371370.jpeg)
The title of the video, “Exclusive pictures of revolutionary [Gazan] youths breaking into an Israeli army post in eastern Rafah and taking control of equipment belonging to the occupation soldiers.”
The video shows a group of about 20 Gazan adolescents and children endangering their lives by approaching the security fence. One of them cuts an opening in the fence and allow the three to file in.
Children and adolescents move towards the fence.
“The stage of cutting through the fence before breaking into Israeli territory.”
- One of the Gazans participating in the event wore a PRESS vest. In the video it can be seen that he had no equipment for documenting the event. In ITIC assessment, it is doubtful whether he had any media affiliation. He may have worn the vest to keep from being shot at. The pattern of Hamas and other terrorist organizations’ operatives representing themselves as media personnel is familiar from the past.
Gazan participant in the operation of breaking into Israeli territory wearing a PRESS vest.
After cutting through the fence three young Gazans entered Israeli territory and climbed into the abandoned IDF post. The others watched from the Gaza side of the fence. The faces of the three were deliberately blurred in the video. Apparently the planning before the operation included dividing the participants into squads, according to their missions. One squad entered Israeli territory and the IDF post.
![According to the video, "The revolutionary [youths] break into the military post belonging to the soldiers of the occupation."](https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2018/08/word-image-1534077386518.jpeg)
Right: Three Gazan boys climb into the IDF post. Left: According to the video, “The revolutionary [youths] break into the military post belonging to the soldiers of the occupation.”
The youths at the post, their faces blurred.
According to the video, “Taking equipment of the soldiers of the occupation from the post.”
The song heard in background
- During the video a song was played from “Rap for the al-Quds Intifada,” by a group called the Çanakkale Band.[2] The group is from Turkey and sings in Arabic. The song was first played on June 18, 2018, and its lyrics are the following (Note: Transcription and translation by the ITIC):
March forward, for you are the symbol of determination,
and throughout the whole world Jews are terrified of you.
Strike and slaughter on land and at sea,
the time of weakness is gone for ever.
Say, “this is my land and the land of my forefathers,
a history of glory until the Judgment Day.”
There will be no bargaining, only resistance.
Tell the Jew clerics I am on my way.
March forward, for in Jerusalem there are free men who suffer humiliation
and protest to Allah of the injustice of the [Zionist] entity.
Be determined in your stride and shake your enemy to the core.
Give your blood without complaint, the time has come,
in the land of Palestine and everywhere,
the voice of the Muezzin calling us to prayer will never be silenced,
The minarets of the mosques will forever remain in [Jerusalem,] the Mother of Cities .
Only the inhabitants [i.e., the Palestinians] will remain and erase the humiliated [i.e., the Jews].
[1] See, for example, the July 11, 2018, bulletin "Hamas handles boys for sabotaging the security fence as part of the 'return marches:' The case of Yasser Abu al-Naja." ↑
[2] According to the band's Facebook page, Çanakkale is the Turkish name of the Dardanelles. The name was chosen because of the Battle of Gallipoli, which was fought there in 1915, "the last victory of the Ottoman Empire, and perhaps the last battle between Islam and the infidels" (Facebook page of the Çanakkale Band, February 14, 2017). ↑
