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CNN Live Today

Palestinian Children Find Summer Activity in Camps

Aired July 08, 2002 - 13:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: For many children around the world, summertime is a break from school, a time to relax. However, in the Middle East, summer fun means war games for some Palestinian children.

Our Brent Sadler has that story from Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the Gaza Strip's Shata (ph) refugee camp, a spectacle of Palestinian extremism. Islamic Jihad with a contingent of school boys in tow, brandishing toy machine guns, marching with determined looks.

Israel describes Gaza as hot bed of terror, identifying Islamic Jihad as a faction to crush, yet here in this district of refugee slums, the gunmen and their junior proteges bask in popular support for holy war and the destruction of Israel.

The boys are off school for summer break with time to kill. We don't know where they learn this routine, but we are shown their female counterparts, attending an Islamic Jihad summer camp, occupied in different ways. Sewing material to make soft toys, enjoying the benevolence of Islamic Jihad, the same organization which has sent dozens of suicide bombers to attack Israelis, killing 17 bus passengers at Megido in northern Israel last month.

(on camera): Islamic Jihad is running some 30 camps in the Gaza Strip this summer, diverting children's attention, say organizers, from the effects of Israeli occupation and Palestinian attacks.

(voice-over): They sing harmless nationalistic songs here. But in the refugee camp, boys of similar age pledge an oath of allegiance to Islamic Jihad, and what they call the fight for freedom.

This camp for boys and girls is run by the YMCA close to Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement. One of an estimated 300 camps, catering for the spare time needs of Gazan children this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't work in politics. Politics should not be with children. Children are children.

SADLER: These youngsters are enjoying a show put on by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, part of a national program to help children develop normally. Dr. Fathi Arafat is the younger brother of Palestinian Chairman, Yasser Arafat. Children, he says, must be screened from extremism.

FATHI ARAFAT, BROTHER OF YASSER ARAFAT: Of course the children are affected of what you give them. If you only leave them to see the tragedies and problems, they will have only that in their mind.

SADLER: And impressionable minds at that.

Brent Sadler, CNN, in the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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