Hamas rally in Gaza
Hamas rally in GazaAbed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

A military court in Gaza on Tuesday sentenced three local residents to death after they were convicted of providing information to Israel's security services.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the security forces and which is controlled by Hamas in Gaza, said that the Supreme Military Court sentenced to death by strangling and shooting the three men, who according to the statement handed over information that harmed the public interest and the Palestinian national security.

The trial of the "spies" was held behind closed doors and without the presence of the media.

Hamas regularly claims to have captured “Israeli spies”, and many times it tries them and sentences them to death.

In one such example, the group claimed to have exposed “the most dangerous intelligence agent” who allegedly worked for the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet).

More recently, Hamas claimed it arrested an intelligence agent who had provided information to Israel for 14 years and who allegedly assisted in providing information which led to the elimination of terrorists and in the bombings of houses in Gaza.

Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death. All death sentences, however, require the approval of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who issued a moratorium on death sentences in 2005.

Hamas ignores the moratorium and carries out the executions anyway, as it no longer recognizes the legitimacy of Abbas, whose four-year term expired in 2009.

Amnesty International has previously called on Hamas to stop the executions of suspected collaborators, saying that the group “must immediately and totally cease its use of the death penalty.”