Gaza
GazaAbed Rahim Khatib/ Flash 90

Two Palestinian Arab men from Khan Yunis and Rafah were sentenced to death by hanging by a Hamas court on charges of collaboration with Israel, Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reported on Sunday.

According to Ynet, two other Palestinian Arabs were sentenced to penal labor for the same charge.

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

In October of 2018, the group claimed to have exposed and arrested a Palestinian Arab who had worked as an intelligence agent for Israel for 15 years.

In March of that year, the group claimed it had arrested a local man who had been working as a “spy” for Israel and who intended to convince Gazans not to take part in a violent protest march along the Gaza-Israel border.

In 2019, Hamas reportedly uncovered an Israeli espionage attempt against one of the organization's commanders.

In theory all execution orders in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) territories must be approved by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in Ramallah and who imposed a moratorium on executions several years ago.

Hamas no longer recognizes Abbas’ legitimacy, and has in the past emphatically declared that the death penalty in Gaza can be carried out without his consent.