GAZA: MILITARY COURT ISSUES DEATH PENALTY TO COLLABORATOR

June 20, 2013: A military court in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip issued the death sentence to a Palestinian after finding him guilty of collaborating with Israeli intelligence.
The man, identified only as Kh.Sh, was born in 1972 and is from the Meghazi refugee camp in the central West Bank district of Deir al-Balah.
The sentence is the third death penalty issued since May, after the Hamas-run government vowed it would execute a number of collaborators with Israel in an attempt to "eradicate" collaboration.
Last month, Salah Addin Abu Sharkh, director of internal security at the Interior Ministry, said the government had "a clear goal and several means to eradicate this dangerous epidemic," including executing convicted collaborators.
Abu Sharkh said the anti-collaboration campaign, which ran from March 12 to May 12, achieved most of its goals and resulted in a number of arrests. He said legal procedures against the suspects were ongoing, in an interview on the ministry's website.
"Social networks are largely useful in educating our people, though the Israeli occupation makes some attempts to recruit collaborators through these social networks. However, these attempts are incomparable with the huge benefits these networks achieve in raising awareness about the dangers of collaboration," Abu Sharkh added.
He said all Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip cooperated with security services and played a role in fighting collaboration.
In May, a military court in Gaza sentenced two convicted collaborators to death by hanging. (Sources: Ma'an, 20/06/2013)