A pro-Hamas rally at Al-Quds University on March 23. Photo: Tom Gross/Mideast Dispatch.

While peace plans, processes and programs come and go, in a major West Bank refugee camp Hamas is drilling its staunch followers towards one supreme goal: defeating both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

This, despite a recently-signed “unity pact” between the two rival Palestinian groups.

At a heavily-attended mass memorial service held for a Hamas-Islamic Jihad-Fatah trio killed by IDF forces in a raid two months ago, a Channel 2 TV news crew spotted a group of blustering 12-year-old youths, toting mock rifles and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).

“I want to die in war against the [Israeli] army,” declared the nephew of one of the deceased terrorists. “Because they killed my uncle,” he said.

“We want to free Palestine, to redeem the blood of all the martyrs.”

Although officially under PA control, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and even some Fatah cells own the hideouts among the warrens of alleyways in Jenin.

The camera stops to pan across several garish posters of current and late killers adorning the camp’s barren concrete walls. Dozens of green Hamas flags flutter above the milling crowds and on balconies.

Many Palestinians, both those wanted by Israel for terrorist activities, and many released in several recent controversial tranches as an unrequited “goodwill gesture” aimed at jump-starting stalled talks with the PA, are local heroes among the camp’s denizens.

Minutes after the ceremony commences, several masked and heavily-armed men clad in webbing and brandishing real semi-automatic rifles and full-sized RPGs stride to the front of the crowd of thousands of supporters.

“Was this a time for resistance or a time for peace?” the reporter asks one.

Gesturing with his upheld double-clipped Colt M-1, “we fight because there is no peace,” he replied.

“With the Jews and the Israelis there will only be peace with this gun – that’s how you talk with Israelis,” he asserted, his voice later electronically distorted by the producers to mask his identity.

The reporter flinches as shots are fired in the background to honor the gathered terrorists.

“Only with fire from this rifle will we free our land, Allah willing,” the gunman says. “We are here to tell you that the blood of the martyrs will not be spilled without punishment.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials then take the stage, and one takes a microphone in hand to boast, “That which killed Abu Jihad, and killed [Ahmad] Yassin, and which poisoned Abu Amar (Yassir Arafat) was the occupation – and it is the occupation that we will avenge with our unity, with our weapons, against this arrogant occupation, with great spirit.”

An armed man alongside him, his face exposed, clatters off a string of rounds. The reporter says IDF forces captured him a day later, but not without a gunfight.

Hamas personnel tell the reporter that the armed men are a symbol of their intention to fight PA forces that are likely to soon descend on, and disperse, the militant gathering.

Watch the footage of the terror rally below: