Each year since taking power in Gaza in 2007, the Islamist movement has staged camps for boys dispensing religious education and combat training with the aim of “resisting” sworn enemy Israel.
Hamas says teaching youths to fight is part of legitimate "resistance" to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. Rights activists, meanwhile, accuse it of exploiting children scarred by war and see the rising militarization of Gaza’s young as a dangerous new trend.
The stadium is swarming with teenagers and young men, thrusting out their chests with pride at having rubbed shoulders with the highly-trained Qassam fighters.
They are here to show off their newly-minted skills and compete with one another – who will be quickest to take apart and reassemble their weapon? Qassam fighters set fire to hoops for them to jump through.
Those in the resistance are never afraid.
Kids like these have already lived through three wars with Israel, the latest of which left some 500 children dead, according to UN figures. The Qassam Brigades have warned that without reconstruction of parts of Gaza destroyed in the fighting, “there will be an explosion.” When the next flare-up comes - which none here doubt it will - its young trainees are adamant they will be ready to fight.
