Hamas gives Gazan 15 years for spying for Israel

GAZA CITY — A military court in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday jailed a Palestinian convicted of “spying” for Israel to 15 years, judicial sources said.

In March two other men were given the same sentence for the same offense.

Under Palestinian law, those convicted of collaboration with Israel, murder and drug trafficking face the death penalty.

Execution orders must be approved by the Palestinian president before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognizes the legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas, whose four-year term ended in 2009.

The militant Islamist Hamas has carried out formal executions ordered by its courts and summary, sometimes public, killings of “collaborators” condemned by “revolutionary tribunals.”

During last year’s summer war with Israel in Gaza, men wearing uniforms of the armed wing of Hamas riddled with bullets six alleged collaborators outside Gaza City’s main mosque as worshipers left after midday prayers.