Gazan sentenced to death for providing info to Israel

N.A., 28, accused of collaborating with Jewish state, allegedly leading to deaths of Palestinians

A Hamas military court in the Gaza Strip on Monday sentenced a Palestinian to death for allegedly providing information to Israel said to have led to Palestinians being killed, judicial sources said.

The 28-year-old man was identified only by the initials N.A. and no other details on the accusations against him were provided by Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Palestinian territory which has seen three wars with Israel in six years.

According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, 157 people have been sentenced to death since the creation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.

Thirty-two have been executed, including 30 in the Gaza Strip.

All execution orders must in theory be approved by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognizes his legitimacy.

In Gaza, beyond death sentences handed out by courts, Hamas has also carried out summary executions for collaborating with Israel, sometimes in public places.

The most prominent occurred during last summer’s 50-day war between Hamas and Israel, when a firing squad of men in uniforms from Hamas’ armed wing shot dead six people in front of Gaza City’s main mosque.

Under Palestinian law, collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers risk death sentences.