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A HAMAS commander told Israeli forces the terror group uses children to deliver explosives and spot IDF tanks.
Mustafa Alkhair, commander of Hamas' Zeitun Battalion, revealed how the terror organisation even uses their own kids to protect themselves amid the brutal war in Gaza.
Captured on December 8, Israeli forces have been questioning Alkhair about the group's brutal methods of child recruitment.
When asked by the interrogator about the possibility of a child dying, Alkhair shrugged and said the terrorists use their kids "in order not to risk your own life".
He told Israeli interrogators they use children they know and trust to report back on IDF presence in the area.
In a horrific revelation he also said Hamas uses children to transport explosives from one place to another.
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"For example", he said, "someone wants to bring an explosive charge from one place to another".
"The [IDF] would fire towards a grown up so instead he gives it to a small boy.
"They use those plastic buckets for example that they use for vegetables to hide it.
"And tell the child 'because you are small, go and put this in a certain house, as in, in the entrance to the house and then come back".
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"The boy transports it [the explosive] and returns."
The Hamas commander said "80 per cent" of the children sent out under these instructions were done so by close relatives, and claims the terror group was unaware of it until after the war began.
He described "younger ones" as "Jihadists... with Islamic Jihad, Hamas, or another group."
He gave examples of an older male relative telling his 15-year-old cousin to go to a specific location and check for tanks.
"They tell him, for example, to wave a white flag and go to a certain area and see where the [IDF] vehicles are, if there are any and how many vehicles there are.
"They ask the child to describe them.
"If they have artillery or if they don't have artillery. How are they parked? Are there soldiers around the vehicles? Aren't there soldiers around the vehicles?"
Alkhair even said older Hamas members bribe children with money "for ice cream" to return with specific information about tanks and other observations about the IDF.
The chilling information comes just days after Israel claimed Hamas are using recordings of children screaming "save me, save me!" to lure IDF troops into death traps.
Government spokesman Avi Hyman spoke to The Sun about the particularly heinous methods used by the terror group and how Israeli troops are "struggling psychologically".
Children's toys and belongings have allegedly been rigged with explosives to trick soldiers into entering deathly traps.
Part of Hamas' "military effort" also involves using kids as a go-between for communicating amongst commanders.
When the Israeli interrogator asked about the risk to these children and whether they are "likely to die", he replied in relation to one specific example: "That's right, no one saved him".
"He died... he is a baby who died."
"Why do you send your son?" asked the Israeli interrogator about the cruel Hamas technique.
"In order not to risk your own life... he knows his child will be at risk."
Alkhair said that no child can be considered an official Hamas fighter until he is 18.
"The draft age is 18. If he [the minor] makes a mistake, he is responsible for it."
When the interrogator asked what happens if a minor dies, he said "The person who dispatched him is the one who made the mistake. He's the one who bears responsibility".
"Hamas [as an organisation] recognises those that go with it.
"But [the] al-Qassam brigade [doesn't recognise you] if you aren't at the age of enlistment."
He said the part of Hamas working in "assistive security" also recruits children who are just 16.
"They bring them and continue to train them. Not military exercises, but ideological, instructive, research [exercises] and so on.
"And then they do routine security assignments in places that aren't dangerous. In the streets, so that they practice routine security and guarding.
"Until they reach 18 and then they are taken to the fighter's course."
The interrogator clarified: "Meaning this is being done by children who aren't even 18?"
"Yes, of course," he said, in an appalling revelation.
He also told Israeli forces that if a militant Hamas member was to run away, fleeing their forces in the north and moving south, they would not be allowed back into the fold.
"He won't be let into Jihad [combat] sites and routing security sites.
"It's possible the military security [the al-Qassam brigade military police] will arrest him as a mole."
Alkhair went on to describe how thousands have gone to schools and pretended to be civilians in the Gaza Strip.
"Hundreds, thousands, went to schools, pretend to be civilians. But in the south they don't recognise it, and also not the Fatah [organisation].
"They don't know it at all. But there are youngsters [that come from the north] among them."
Speaking of tunnels the IDF discovered inside Gaza schools, he said that those in the east of the Strip are viewed as potential "command centres for the army".
"Maybe the army will come and there is a backyard there [at the school].
"And he [the IDF] will park its vehicles and turn it into a command centre.
"And then I try to leave tunnel shafts near those schools that are on the edge so that if they [the IDF] will turn them into commander centres, I will exit [the tunnels] to work with them.
He clarified here that working with them means fighting and "shooting" the IDF.
He denied doing the same with schools in the west of Gaza, which he said is not "part of Hamas' military plan".
IDF forces have been pushing the ground operation in Gaza since the brief ceasefire weeks ago in an attempt to obliterate Hamas.
Defence chief Yoav Gallant also said the operation is set to "expand to additional areas", according to the Times of Israel.
As the battles grow ever-increasingly more brutal inside the Gaza Strip, US President Biden expressed fears that Israel is starting to lose international support due to “indiscriminate bombing”.
More than 20,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far - Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims.
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Israel disputes these figures - and US President Joe Biden previously said he had “no confidence” in them.
But Benjamin Netanyahu admitted Israel has "not been successful” in reducing civilian casualties.