"I will kill every Zionist pig I see, and liberate my land with blood and fire," he added, his voice cracking, whether from emotion or puberty.
Gaza City, July 20 - Ghasseb Hatib hopes to be drafted in one of the first few rounds when Hamas and other Islamist militant organizations begin their recruitment this week for next season's round of conflict with Israel, but he faces stiff competition. Thousands of Palestinian teens and preteens want their faces to adorn martyr posters, but only comparatively few will get the chance, and the Class of 2015 is shaping up to be a banner year for child soldiers in the Gaza Strip, recruiters say.
If Ghasseb, 14, makes the cut, he will join the select group of youths who attack Israeli soldiers with rocks, explosives, knives, or guns, daring the IDF troops to fire back - and if they do, to get accused of war crimes. Ghasseb sees himself as a soldier, not a civilian, and certainly not a child, but he is well aware of the tactical advantage his age and size give him in any such confrontation, and wants a piece of the front line action, where the glory and fame lie. He will have to prove his mettle when Hamas and Islamic Jihad scouts visit, or he may end up digging attack tunnels instead of directly confronting Israelis.
"I'm ready to give everything to rid Palestine of the usurping Jew," says the brown-haired youth, the second of six children. "Just as my brother Muhammad did before me." Muhammad Hatib, 16, was killed last summer when an Israeli patrol returned fire at his sniper position. Human rights organizations and the Hamas propaganda apparatus trumpeted his status as a child and a civilian, but Ghasseb knows that is merely a feature of a PR war, and not a genuine reflection of his family's sacrifice.
"I want to continue in the noble path my brother followed, and with Allah's help, I will succeed where he did not get the chance," added Ghasseb. "I will kill every Zionist pig I see, and liberate my land with blood and fire," he added, his voice cracking, whether from emotion or puberty.
Observers expect Ghasseb to fare well in the draft by most measures, as his performance statistics are impressive, and his looks youthful, making his face, in inevitable death, a must-film for the international media. But he has created expectations for himself that might not materialize. "I'm trying to get him to accept that there is a life of devotion to the Resistance that does not include being the one who triggers the explosives in the booby-trapped house," said his mother, Suha. "Not everyone can be a superstar who ends up on a martyr poster and has guns fired into the air during his funeral. Some children have to be the ones to die in the effort of digging tunnels, while others must serve as the human shields who protect the actual fighters. It is all noble."