Members of the Palestinian Hamas security forces take part in a graduation ceremony in Gaza City on January 22, 2017. (AFP/Mahmud Hams)
A court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday sentenced eight members of the rival Fatah faction to lengthy jail terms for undermining “revolutionary unity,” the interior ministry said.
Fatah, which is headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was largely ejected from Gaza in 2007, when Hamas seized power in a bloody coup. Fatah controls the West Bank, where Abbas is based.
The convicted men were found to have collected “security information” against Hamas, including on the “structure and movements” of its militants, in cases dating back to 2014, the ministry said in a statement.
Three were jailed for life by the military court, while the rest received sentences ranging from seven to 15 years.
They were members of the Fatah-led security services.
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Khaled Mashaal, political leader of Hamas (left), meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo, Egypt, December 21, 2011. (photo credit: AP)
Fayez Abu Eita, a spokesman for Fatah in the Gaza Strip, called the sentences “political and unjust.”
A number of attempts at reconciliation between the two sides have failed.
The Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, run by Fatah, regularly arrest Hamas members.
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