Palestinians in Gaza divide over death sentences issued by Hamas to collaborators with Israel

Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave have differing opinions concerning death sentences issued by a military court in Gaza against seven Palestinians for "collaborating" with Israel. 

Speaking to The New Arab, some have argued that Hamas has no right to issue death sentences because all governmental and legislative institutions lack legitimacy due to the internal division amongst Palestinian political parties since 2007.

"No one has the right to sentence a person to death easily, mainly as the person may be a victim of extortion operations used by the Israeli occupation," they added. 

Rizk Abdel-Fattah, from Gaza City, denounced the imposition of severe penalties on citizens "who are already suffering from poverty, hunger, and unemployment and find no prospect of living in dignity (...) while the Palestinian leaders and their relatives live a comfortable life without complaining of difficulties in life," he argued.

"Before Hamas in Gaza or Fatah in the West Bank judges anyone suspected of collaborating with Israel, they must fight the rampant corruption in most of the state's governmental institutions," he said to TNA.

Huda Al-Rahawi, a Gaza-based woman in her 60s, holds the same opinion. She told TNA, "In the past, when people used to live a decent life even while they were under Israeli occupation, we rarely heard that anyone communicated with Israel."

"But the current situation is completely different," she added, "because of political corruption, poverty, and destitution, all Palestinians are vulnerable to being victims of the occupation and the continuous methods of extortion to communicate with them in return for the victim getting a little money to support their families."

Shadi Abu Armaneh, a resident of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, adopted the counter position, saying he believes that death sentences are the best way to punish those who collaborated with Israel because they cause destruction and harm to the families of the leaders, as well as to the entire population of the Strip.

"We cannot justify communicating with an enemy that deliberately destroys our lives economically, socially and politically and spares no effort to get rid of the entire people on the pretext that poverty has killed its total population," he remarked to TNA. "I prefer to starve to death rather than communicate with the occupation, no matter how much I am subjected to extortion or even pressure on my life."

On Sunday, 6 August, a military court in the Gaza Strip sentenced seven people to death by hanging for "collaboration" with Israel, the Hamas-run interior ministry said.

The court also sentenced seven others to "life imprisonment with hard labour," which in Gaza amounts to 25 years, the ministry said in a statement.

Palestinian militant group Hamas controls Gaza, and the military court has regularly issued death sentences for people found guilty of "collaboration" with Israel.

Under Palestinian law, a death sentence requires the approval of the president of the Palestinian Authority, which is headquartered in the occupied West Bank.

But since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, it has repeatedly ignored this regulation, and last September executed two Palestinians for "collaboration" with Israel and three others for murder.

Two people were sentenced to death in April, and four others were given life sentences on the charges of collaborating with Israel.

At least 17 death sentences were issued in 2022 in the Gaza Strip.

Israel and militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas - designated as a "terrorist group" by Israel and the United States - have fought several wars over the past 15 years.

Some 2.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since 2007, when Hamas took control after a conflict with Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Meanwhile, the Gaza-based Mezan Center for Human Rights expressed concerns about the continued issuance of death sentences by the military"court in Gaza. 

"Currently, the world is seeking to find other penalties that are more effective to reduce serious crimes to achieve the purposes of the law, at a time when the death penalty has proven to be ineffective in reducing the occurrence of crimes," the human rights organisation said in a press statement sent to TNA. 

The organisation called on Hamas to stop all death sentences, especially in light of the accession of the State of Palestine to human rights conventions that impose an original obligation on the state to amend its national legislation to comply with its obligations under international agreements.