Hamas Sentences 7 Gazans to Death over Israel 'Collaboration'

A military court in the Gaza Strip on Sunday sentenced seven people to death by hanging for "collaboration" with Israel, the coastal enclave's 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 there 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, and last September executed two Palestinians for "collaboration" with Israel as well as three others for murder.


In April, two people were sentenced to death and four others were given life sentences on the same 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 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, which has been under a crippling Israeli-led blockade since Hamas rose to power.