Hamas to execute several ‘agents of Israel’ soon

Hamas has announced that it will execute several men which it has found guilty of collaborating with Israel. The movement’s ‘interior minister’ Fathi Hammad said in a statement: "The death penalty will be implemented for agents [of Israel] who have been sentenced to death, regardless of the position of rights groups that reject these kinds of sentences.”

"The near future will witness the carrying out of the death sentences," Hammad said. The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip said the sentences had been handed down in the last two months, with some other alleged informers given prison time.

Hamas has approved the death penalty for informers, murderers and drug dealers, but has not officially executed anyone since it seized power in Gaza in a violent coup June 2007 and drove out official Palestinian forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. However, several dozen opponents to the regime were killed by armed groups during the Gaza war, according to human rights groups.

Palestinian law says the president must approve all execution orders before they can be carried out, but Hamas is likely to bypass this as it no longer recognizes the legitimacy of Abbas, whose four-year term officially ended in 2009.