Hamas-appointed AG: Collaborators will be executed in the coming days

Jaber added the execution sentences are final and unappealable.

APRIL 6, 2017 01:27

Updated: APRIL 6, 2017 10:40

The son of senior Hamas militant Mazen Fuqaha sits on the shoulders of Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar during a memorial service for Fuqaha, in Gaza City March 27, 2017 (photo credit: REUTERS) — The son of senior Hamas militant Mazen Fuqaha sits on the shoulders of Hamas Gaza Chief Yehya Al-Sinwar during a memorial service for Fuqaha, in Gaza City March 27, 2017

(photo credit: REUTERS)

Palestinian collaborators with Israel will be executed in “the coming days”, Hamas-appointed Attorney General Ismail Jaber said on Wednesday, two weeks after Hamas blamed Israel and collaborators of assassinating Mazen Fukaha.

Hundreds participate in symbolic funeral for senior Hamas militant Fuqaha (credit: REUTERS)

Fukaha, who was a senior Hamas military leadership, was mysteriously assassinated on March 24 near his home in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.

The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry is carrying out an investigation into Fukaha’s killing, but has not published most of its details.

“To enforce the rule of law and achieve general deterrence, a number of execution sentences will be carried out against collaborators with the Zionist enemy, who have been convicted of perpetrating criminal acts and providing information [to Israel] that harmed public security,” Jaber told al-Rai, an official government new site in Gaza, without clarifying the said collaborators’ relationship to Fukaha’s assassination.

Jaber added the execution sentences are final and unappealable.

The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry announced on Saturday that it would take “increased measures” against collaborators.

Two days later, al-Majd, a news site closely connected to the Hamas security services, reported that the security services arrested many collaborators. In addition, al-Majd quoted an anonymous security official, who said that collaborators who turn themselves in will face lesser punishments.

Hamas has called for the harshest punishments to be handed down to collaborators.

Hamas and the government institutions it controls have dealt harshly with collaborators in the past.

Following Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Hamas executed 18 collaborators in a single day.