A public execution in Gaza carried out by Hamas. Capital punishment is permitted under Palestinian penal law for murder, drug trafficking, collaborating with Israel, and selling land to Jews.
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However the full Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.
These doubts are likely shared by anyone who has heard about the Hamas practice of sending masked hitmen to hunt down and shoot dead so-called Israel “collaborators” in the streets.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, nine death sentences were handed down in the Gaza Strip in 2015 and two in the occupied West Bank, run by the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas is to carry out a string of public executions in the Gaza strip, the patch of territory it controls.
Hamas Attorney-General, Ismail Jabber said that five convicts sentenced to death would be executed next week, while another eight would be executed after the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in July.
“It is critical for the security of both Palestinians and Israelis that Gaza remains calm and hope is restored to its people”, he said.
Hamas has denied Israeli charges that it siphons off cement imports to help build and fortify attack tunnels. Mahmoud Eshtewi was accused of theft and of having sex with another man, the New York Times reported.
He said he had “serious doubt” as to whether capital trials in Gaza would meet global law standards for capital punishment, as well as concern over “disturbing media reports indicating that the sentences could be carried out in public”.
Mladenov said that “unless radically more is done to address the chronic realities in Gaza, it is not a question of if, but rather of when another escalation will take place”.
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Nickolay Mladenov, UN special envoy for the Middle East peace process, told the UN Security Council that under worldwide law, the death penalty can be applied only for the most serious crimes and after processes that “scrupulously follow fair trial standards”.
