Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

has been practiced by the Hamas Administration since it assumed power in 2007. The punishment is given for offenses such as crimes against

Islamic law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

, land sales to Israelis, and

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. The

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni- Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Br ...

administration of the Gaza Strip inherited the

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

code of law, which included the death penalty for several kinds of offenses, but while the Palestinian administration in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusa ...

has refrained from executing capital punishments, death sentences are periodically performed by Hamas. Palestinian law requires approval from the Palestinian Authority president for the death penalty, but Hamas in Gaza has carried out executions without permission.

History

According to an

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

report, 23 Palestinians were executed in the Gaza Strip by Hamas during the 2014 conflict with Israel. Amnesty claimed that Hamas used the cover of

2014 Gaza war The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territories, Pale ...

to carry out

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes inclu ...

s, including to “settle scores” against opponents under the pretext they were “collaborators with Israel”. According to Amnesty, 23 Palestinians were executed by Hamas in the course of the 2014 conflict - 16 of them imprisoned from before the conflict. From among the executed, 6 were killed by a firing squad outside a mosque in front of hundreds of spectators including children. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported in December 2015 that Hamas issued nine death sentences in 2015. Hamas had sentenced four Gazans to death during the first weeks of 2016, all on suspicion of spying. In February 2016, the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out execution of Mahmoud Ishtiwi - one of the group’s leading commanders, under allegations of gay sex and theft. Ishtiwi left two wives and three children. In May 2016, Hamas reportedly executed three men by firing squad and hanging. The execution was performed in the al-Katiba prison. The executed men were convicted for murder. Reportedly, the execution defied protests from the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

and "will likely" deepen tensions with the Palestinian government in the West Bank. Hamas defied an agreement with Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank, by carrying out the executions without the approval of Palestinian President

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Nati ...

. Hamas later announced that 13 additional prisoners are to be executed. In April 2017, it was reported that three Palestinians were executed by Hamas in Gaza Strip over alleged collaboration with Israel. Reportedly, the men were hanged at a Hamas police compound, as dozens of Hamas leaders and officials watched the killing. On 4 September 2022, Hamas announced it had executed five men, including two men condemned over collaboration with the occupation (Israel), and three others in criminal cases. A a resident of Khan Younis born 1968 was convicted of supplying Israel in 1991 with “information on men of the resistance, their residence… and the location of rocket launchpads”; a second man, born 1978, was for supplying Israel in 2001 with intelligence “that led to the targeting and martyrdom of citizens” by Israeli forces, according to Hamas. The other three men had been convicted for murder (including Murad Abu Zeid). According to

B'Tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...

, Hamas courts handed down 13 death sentences in January-August 2022, but had not carried out any since 2017.Times of Israel
, 4 September 2022

Executed people

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Punishment In The Gaza Strip

Human rights in the Gaza Strip Islam and capital punishment Death in the Gaza Strip 2007 establishments in the Palestinian territories 2007 in the Gaza Strip

History

Executed people

See also

References