Sunday, Hamas authorities in Gaza killed five Palestinians convicted of murder and alleged collaboration with Israel in separate instances.
The Interior Ministry stated that the purpose of the killings was to “promote public deterrence and security,” but rights groups have previously questioned the fair trial standards of the Islamic militant group’s military and civilian courts.
Two individuals, both members of the Palestinian security forces, were executed by firing squad, while the remaining three were hanged at daybreak at a security post in Gaza City.
The executions were the first since Hamas murdered three Gazans in 2017 following a rushed trial for the murder of a group commander.
After violent fighting with soldiers loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, it has issued 180 death sentences and carried out 33 of them “without the ratification of the Palestinian President in contravention of Palestinian law.”
In 2018, the Palestinian Authority, situated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and exercising limited self-rule, ratified international treaties prohibiting the death penalty.
The ministry stated that two of those executed on Sunday, ages 44 and 54, were accused of working with Israel and giving it with information that assisted the Israeli military in bombing targets in Gaza. Since 2009 and 2015, respectively, they had been incarcerated.
Three others were convicted guilty of murder in other cases, including one man who reportedly participated in a July gunfight that resulted in the deaths of a man and a teenager following a family disagreement.
Since 2007, Hamas and Israel have engaged in four wars and countless minor conflicts, with the most recent occurring in May 2021. Israel, the United States and the European Union consider the group a terrorist organization for its attacks targeting Israeli civilians.
Israel-Gaza Conflict