Three men were executed in Gaza on Thursday, days after being found guilty of assassinating a top member of the militant group Hamas – a crime the group accuses Israel of ordering.
Israel usually does not comment on such matters but has denied any part in the March killing. Two of the sentenced men were executed by hanging, a third by firing squad. The executions were carried out as a near-communal event, with nearly 3,000 people, from political and tribal factions, invited. Two hooded Hamas executioners manned the scaffolding.
Before he was executed, one of the condemned men, Hisham al-Aloul (42) said in a shaking voice: “I want to apologise to my people. I ask my family to forgive me. I tell the Israeli intelligence you are scum. Sooner or later the resistance will get you. The Palestinian security in Gaza is smarter than you. The American and Israeli intelligence are the worst of humanity.”
The assassination of Mazen Fuqaha, a senior member of Hamas's military wing, set off a brutal search for people accused of collaborating with Israel in the Gaza Strip. Some 45 people have been arrested since the killing.
Amid a general crackdown, Hamas executed three people in March for collaboration, though their alleged crimes were not related to Mr Fuqaha’s death. Hamas has recently changed leadership both at the head of the group and in the Gaza Strip, which it governs.
Firing squad
Mr Fuqaha was found in his car, shot four times in the head at close range, after driving his family home from the beach, in what officials said bore the markings of a professional hit. A silencer was reportedly used. The man who was convicted by Hamas in the assassination, Ashraf Abu Leila (38) was hanged, as was Mr Aloul, who was convicted as an accomplice.
The third man, Abdullah al-Nashar (38), a former officer in the presidential guard of the Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, was killed by firing squad.
Human rights groups condemned the executions. "A regime that takes lives as a punitive or deterrent measure is committing an immoral act that constitutes an intolerable violation of human rights," the rights group B'Tselem, which is often criticised by the Israeli government, said in a statement Thursday.
Mr Fuqaha, who was 38 and originally from the West Bank, was close to the new leader of Hamas in Gaza: Yehya Sinwar, a hardliner who has been especially concerned with betrayal within Hamas and co-operation with Israel. The two men reportedly shared a jail cell for a year in Israeli prison. Both were released in 2011.
Israel generally does not confirm or deny involvement in killings and attacks. In April, defence minister Avigdor Lieberman took the unusual step of saying that Hamas was "known for internal assassinations" and that Israel was not looking for "adventures" in Gaza. Still, Hamas accuses Israel of responsibility.
New York Times