![A member of Hamas security forces gives instructions to Palestinian students during a military-style exercise at the courtyard of a high school in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 6, 2013. The military-style exercise in the 138 Hamas-run high schools in Gaza was part of a program sanctioned by the Hamas Islamist government to teach students how to use guns. Education officials in Gaza say some 6,000 students have joined the training initiative where only boys can sign up for the voluntary progra](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTXXZDK.jpg/RTXXZDK.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=WrwStbDg)
Hazem Balousha is a Palestinian journalist based in Gaza City. He has worked as a news producer for BBC World Service, contributed to Deutsche Welle and has written for The Guardian, Al-Raya (Qatar) and other publications. He is the founder of the Palestinian Institute for Communication and Development (PICD). On Twitter: @iHaZeMi
![A member of Hamas security forces gives instructions to Palestinian students during a military-style exercise at the courtyard of a high school in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 6, 2013. The military-style exercise in the 138 Hamas-run high schools in Gaza was part of a program sanctioned by the Hamas Islamist government to teach students how to use guns. Education officials in Gaza say some 6,000 students have joined the training initiative where only boys can sign up for the voluntary progra](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTXXZDK.jpg/RTXXZDK.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=WrwStbDg)
![Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad sits at the head of a Palestinian cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah April 16, 2013. Abbas accepted Fayyad's resignation on Saturday, but is likely to keep him in office for the next few weeks while the U.S. tries to revive Middle East peace talks, officials said on Monday. REUTERS/ Mohamed Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTXYNV1](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/Fayyad.jpg/Fayyad.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=bRxmXun-)
![Teachers stand among school girls during a queue exercise at al-Qahera school in Gaza City April 2, 2013. New rules from the Education Ministry of the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip will bar men from teaching at girls' schools and mandate separate classes for boys and girls from the age of nine. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS EDUCATION) - RTXY5MN](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTXY5MN.jpg/RTXY5MN.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=NkrOBegH)
![Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani talks during the official opening ceremony of the Doha GOALS forum in Doha December 11, 2012. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad (QATAR - Tags: SPORT POLITICS) - RTR3BG1Z](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/Emir%20of%20Qatar.jpg/Emir%20of%20Qatar.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=yRCHAY8t)
![Palestinian women hold up their refugee ration cards during a protest demanding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to resume aid for refugees in Gaza City April 8, 2013. The main U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinians closed all of its relief and distribution centres in Gaza after protesters stormed its headquarters on Thursday demanding it to reverse a decision to cut annual cash handouts of $40 to the poorest beneficiaries. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST SOCIET](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTXYD41.jpg/1-RTXYD41.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=vyqQQb6S)
![Rajab Abu Ghanim (rear C) teaches his daughter, Palestinian girl Shorouq Abu Ghanem, to surf in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Gaza City November 5, 2010. Away from Gaza's troubled reality and beyond its polluted shore, Shorouq and Sabah Abu Ghanem surf in a world of their own. The two girls, 13 and 12, learnt how to swim at the age of three at the hand of their lifeguard father. They can swim up to 10 km (6 miles), dive to seven meters (25 feet) and surf on plastic boards that they hope one day to](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTXU9AE.jpg/RTXU9AE.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=z6lSrymI)
![Palestinian school children raise their hands during a class in al-Qahera elementary school in Gaza City April 2, 2013. New rules from the Education Ministry of the Islamist Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip will bar men from teaching at girls' schools and mandate separate classes for boys and girls from the age of nine.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS EDUCATION) - RTXY5M6](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/1-RTXY5M6-001.jpg/1-RTXY5M6-001.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=9p561DH8)
![Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal (R) and Mohammad Nazzal, a member of the Hamas leadership, speak to media after their meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah at the Royal Palace in Amman January 28, 2013. REUTERS/Majed Jaber (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3D30A](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTR3D30A.jpg/RTR3D30A.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=vWbEtwaT)
![A Palestinian artist paints a mural in Gaza City in support of Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails May 14, 2012. One in three of the 4,800 Palestinians serving time in Israeli jails began refusing food on April 17 in protest against detention without trial and to demand better conditions like an increase in family visits and ending solitary confinement. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR321GT](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/04/RTR321GT.jpg/RTR321GT.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=XtL8z9Ks)
![Palestinian labourers sort plastic containers before they are recycled in a factory in Abasan in the southern Gaza Strip October 25, 2009. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA POLITICS ENVIRONMENT) - RTXPZTI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTXPZTI.jpg/1-RTXPZTI.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=cvqj5Oey)
![Israeli activists hold signs in support of Gaza near the entrance to the port of Ashdod October 20, 2012. The Israeli navy seized an international pro-Palestinian activist ship in the Mediterranean sea on Saturday to prevent it breaching its blockade of the Gaza Strip, a military spokeswoman said. She said no one was hurt when marines boarded the SV Estelle, a three-mast schooner, and that it was rerouted to Israel's southern port of Ashdod after it ignored orders to turn away from the Hamas-governed Pales](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR39D0H-001.jpg/RTR39D0H-001.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=CStktQqS)
![U.S. President Barack Obama participates in a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Muqata Presidential Compound in Ramallah March 21, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Reed (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3F9UB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR3F9UB.jpg/RTR3F9UB.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=0oPjp6JP)