Hamas confirms policy of executions to punish collaboration with Israel

Hamas, dismissing international appeals, has launched a policy of executing those convicted of working with Israel.

Palestinian sources said the Hamas regime used a firing squad to kill 2 Palestinians in a police facility in Gaza City on April 15. They said the 2 men had been sentenced to death for collaborating with Israel.

"There will be more executions over the next few weeks," a Palestinian source close to the Hamas regime said.

Hamas confirmed the executions, the 1st in the Gaza Strip since 2005. The Al Misan Human Rights Group said the 2 bodies identified as Mohammed Ismail and Nasser Abu Freh were taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for identification and removal by their families.

In February 2009, Abu Freih, a 34-year-old police sergeant, was convicted of treason by a military court. Ismail, a 36-year-old taxi driver, had been convicted of espionage. Both men confessed to spying or conducting operations for Israel.

International human rights groups had urged the Hamas regime to order a stay of execution. They said at least 32 people were killed in early 2009 during and after the Israel war with Hamas.

"Today's executions are an extremely retrograde step by Hamas," Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, a deputy program director at Amnesty International, said. "As these are the first executions since 2005, we are gravely concerned for the other Palestinian prisoners in Gaza who have been given death sentences by the military courts."

Palestinian sources said the Hamas executions were meant to warn against rising unrest in the Gaza Strip amid a financial crisis. The sources said the Hamas leadership has been concerned over the prospect of riots by Al Qaida-aligned supporters and the rising number of young unemployed in a campaign directed by the rival Palestinian Authority.

"The death penalty will be implemented for [Israeli] agents who have been sentenced to death, regardless of the position of rights groups that reject these kinds of sentences," Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad said before the executions.

Source: World Tribune, April 17, 2010