{"id":3645,"date":"2023-07-02T17:30:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-02T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaparrot.com\/?p=3645"},"modified":"2023-07-02T17:30:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T17:30:12","slug":"hamas-lets-gaza-residents-pose-with-weapons-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaparrot.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/02\/hamas-lets-gaza-residents-pose-with-weapons-for-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas lets Gaza residents pose with weapons for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The armed wing of Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas has put its weapons on public display, in a first open event drawing hundreds of Palestinians including children brandishing rocket launchers for selfies.<\/p>

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Dressed in black balaclavas and tactical camouflage suits, members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades mingled with young men and women at the exhibition in Gaza City’s Unknown Soldier’s Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Resistance is an image and a memory. Take souvenir photos with many of Al-Qassam’s weapons,” the group said in an invitation on social media and posters in mosques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was the first at which Hamas has allowed the public to take photos of weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It follows the latest surge in worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence, which cost 16 Palestinian and four Israeli lives in the occupied West Bank over six days in late June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, militant groups in Gaza and Israel traded cross-border fire for five days, killing 34 Palestinians, among them six commanders of the Islamic Jihad, fighters from other Palestinian armed groups and civilians including children. One Israeli woman died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the Hamas weapons on display in Gaza City on Friday were a range of locally manufactured missiles, “Shihab” drones, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and Russian-made “Kornet” missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exhibitions are also scheduled to take place on Saturday in the north and centre of the Gaza Strip, where people are normally forbidden to approach and photograph military sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the entrance to the Gaza City exhibition a banner welcomed visitors, some of whom had come with their families and children, an AFP correspondent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of uniformed Al-Qassam Brigades members were on hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n