A localized security wing tied to the Hamas terrorist organization carried out the execution of an individual accused of espionage, asserting that he collaborated with the IDF to enable the precision elimination of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of the Al-Qassam Brigades' military operations, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.
The specialized Hamas unit, known as the Resistance Security apparatus, charged the man with covertly assisting Israeli military intelligence and guiding a sequence of tactical strikes throughout the ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip, culminating in the targeting of al-Haddad.
Al-Haddad was eliminated in an Israeli strike on an apartment in central Gaza City on May 15.
While Hamas refrained from putting forth an official, top-level claim of responsibility for the lethal sentence - deflecting the action to the automated jurisdiction of the Resistance Security apparatus - local visual markers and circumstantial details strongly pointed to frontline terrorists from the Al-Qassam Brigades fulfilling the execution.
In an official communication, the Resistance Security branch declared that the execution took place "after all revolutionary procedures had been exhausted" against the suspected operative, who was identified exclusively by the initials "M.M.".
The security apparatus maintained that the individual retained explicit communication lines with "the intelligence services of the Zionist occupation" and directly faulted him for "several massacres that led to the martyrdom of many of our steadfast people during the war of genocide on the Gaza Strip".
Issuing a direct threat to any internal dissent or underground intelligence rings, Resistance Security warned that "this is the fate of collaborators who cooperate with the occupation and align themselves with its schemes aimed at undermining the steadfastness and unity of our people".
Hamas regularly carries out executions in the Gaza Strip, even though all execution orders must be approved by Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in Ramallah and who imposed a moratorium on executions several years ago.
Hamas no longer recognizes Abbas’s legitimacy, and has in the past emphatically declared that the death penalty in Gaza can be carried out without his consent.
Most of Hamas’s executions have been of alleged “Israeli spies". Last July, Hamas's internal security "deterrence" unit announced it carried out a series of "high-quality" operations, during which 12 individuals were executed for alleged collaboration with Israel and involvement in criminal activity.
This latest execution came several weeks after a senior Hamas official announced that the terror organization will "soon" carry out public executions of Gazans whom it claims acted as Israeli agents and were involved in the killings of Al-Qassam Brigades terrorists.