A Hamas court has given the death penalty to three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were accused of working with Israel. For the same offenses, a fourth man was sentenced to life in prison.
The sentences were affirmed on Tuesday when the court turned down requests by the respondents. When the men would be executed was unknown. Several Palestinians have been executed on similar charges in the past by Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian common liberties bunches have recently scrutinized Hamas for giving capital punishments against Palestinians.
Hamas has also been criticized by the Palestinian Authority for issuing and carrying out death sentences, claiming that such verdicts require the president of the PA’s approval.
The three men who were given the death penalty were not named. They were found guilty of violating Article 131 of the 1979 Palestinian Revolutionary Penal Code by “communicating with hostile foreign entities.”
The third defendant will be put to death by firing squad, while two of the defendants will be hanged. The principal man, a 67-year-old occupant of the Gaza Strip, was kept by Hamas in 2011. While crossing the Erez border between Israel and the Gaza Strip in 1997, he is said to have been recruited by Israeli security forces. In exchange for a permit to work in Israel, the man allegedly agreed to cooperate with Israeli authorities. According to the charge sheet, Israel targeted and killed some Palestinians as a result of his actions.
The subsequent man, a 44-year-old occupant of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, was captured by Hamas in 2018. He was blamed for having filled in as a source for Israel beginning around 2000 and giving data about shooters, passages and weapons. As per the charge sheet, the respondent, who functioned as a vehicle seller, offered vehicles with snooping gadgets to Palestinian shooters in the Strip.
The third man, also from Khan Yunis and 36 years old, was accused of working for Israeli security agencies since 2011. During the 2012 and 2014 wars between Israel and the Gaza Strip, he was accused of providing “security and military information.”
A fourth man, 70 years old, was arrested in 2017 and given a life sentence with hard labor for allegedly working with Israel since 2001. He also lives in Khan Yunis. In exchange for a work permit, he also allegedly agreed to collaborate with Israel.
