(The Tower) Hamas announced that it executed three Palestinians for allegedly aiding Israel on Thursday.
The three unnamed men, ages 55, 42, and 31, were hanged at a police facility in front of Hamas officials, representatives of other Gaza-based groups, and several journalists, Agence France-Presse reported.
The news follows the killing of terror mastermind Mazen Faqha last month, for which Hamas vowed revenge. Hamas faults Israel and “collaborators” for his assassination, but did not specify if the three condemned men were suspects.
The men who were executed were guilty of “treason and collaborating,” according to a statement released by the Hamas interior ministry. “The military court in Gaza sentenced them to death by hanging, and the decision was upheld by each military appeals court and the high military court.”
In a statement condemning 13 public executions carried out by Hamas last year, Rubert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, observed that according to Palestinian law no executions are to take place without approval of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The death penalty should “only be carried out in extremely limited circumstances, and pursuant to a trial and appeals that scrupulously follow fair trial standards,” Colville said. He noted that his office “has serious doubts as to whether capital trials in Gaza meet these standards.”
Though Hamas often justifies execution by claiming that the condemned are helping Israel, Israel said that none of the 27 people executed by Hamas during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 were Israeli assets.
Source: The Tower
