Gaza
GazaiStock

A military court in the Gaza Strip on Monday convicted six people of "collaboration" with Israel, sentencing two of them to death, AFP reported.

The court said in a statement the death sentences would be carried out "one by firing squad and the other by hanging".

It added the four others were handed "life sentences with hard labor", which in Gaza amounts to 25 years.

Those convicted were not identified by officials in the Gaza Strip, which has been run by Hamas since 2007, nor were details of their cases published.

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 October of 2021, Hamas sentenced six Palestinian Arab "informants" to death for collaborating with Israel.

Last September, Hamas authorities executed two people who were convicted of helping Israel.

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.