Hamas stops Gaza orphans from going on Israeli tour

Hamas security forces have prevented a group of 37 orphans from Gaza crossing into Israel for a one-week trip, saying the planned tour was an attempt to “brainwash” the children.

The children, aged from five to 12, whose fathers were killed during the 50-day summer war between Hamas and Israel, were turned back from the Erez crossing following a last-minute U-turn by Hamas officials.

A Hamas statement said it rejected normalisation with Israel.

“These types of encounters are Israeli attempts to brainwash the children so that they forget the Palestinian issue and give up their principles,” it said.

Hamas spokesman Eyad Bozum said the children had been prevented from travelling to “protect the culture of our children and our people” from normalising relations with Israel. He said Hamas would make sure such an attempt “will never happen again”.

Yoel Marshak, from Israel’s kibbutz movement, had received permission from the Israeli military and from Hamas rulers for the visit, and stressed that the gesture was an attempt to show the children the other side of the conflict.

The trip, planned by the kibbutz movement, a peace charity and Israeli Arab officials, included a visit to a safari near Tel Aviv and to communities on the Israeli side of the Gaza border. Visits to Israeli-Arab and Bedouin communities had also been planned. No meetings with Israeli politicians had been planned, although Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was to host the children at his West Bank headquarters.

Israeli military officials said they were not surprised by the Hamas refusal, claiming the Gaza rulers had prevented residents wounded during the summer war from receiving treatment at an Israeli field hospital set up at the border.

Mr Marshak said efforts would continue to reschedule the visit. “We initiated this to plant seeds of peace,” he said. “In a few years, when these children become the leaders of the Gaza Strip, they will remember this positive experience well and know that they can live in peace, nation next to nation.”

Separately, Israeli troops shot and wounded three Palestinians yesterday during protests in Gaza against the Israeli and Egyptian blockade and the slow progress of rehabilitation efforts following the war.