An explosion at a terrorist training camp in the Gaza Strip injured fifty people, mostly women and children, Agence France-Presse reported today.

“An explosion happened inside a post of the resistance in Beit Lahiya,” said interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum, in reference to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, said the blast wounded 50 people, five of them in a serious condition, and including children. Witnesses said the blast took place inside a training camp of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip, where Hamas is the de facto power.

Hamas has run terror camps for children for more than a decade. In January, Hamas announced that over 10,000 teens had completed training to fight against Israel at one of these programs. As part of its bid to declare independence unilaterally, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which last year agreed to a unity government with Hamas, signed an international treaty against the use of child soldiers. Hamas’ recruiting and training of teens under the age of 18 puts the PA in violation of the treaty.

[Photo: afpbr / YouTube ]