Four get death penalty in Gaza over spying for Israel

A military court in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip has sentenced four people to death on charges of spying for the Tel Aviv regime.

The court said in a statement that it had handed down the death penalty to a 23-year-old man from the Gaza district of Zeitoun on Wednesday over espionage charges.

Three other individuals who “fled from justice” were also found guilty in absentia, the statement added.

Meanwhile, a court source, whose name was not mentioned in reports, said the four defendants were convicted on “charges of spying for the occupation.”

The charges leveled against the convicts include “surveillance” and providing information to help Israel plan the assassination of leaders of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas.

Under Palestinian law, collaborators, drug traffickers and murderers can be put to death.

In August last year, Hamas captured a dolphin equipped with spying devices, including cameras, off the shore of the Gaza Strip.

The mammal was reportedly being used to track Hamas naval commandos’ movements and training in the water.

The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007. The blockade, which has cut off the territory from the outside world, has led to an economic and humanitarian crisis in the densely-populated enclave.

Israel has also waged three wars on Gaza since 2008, including a devastating 50-day aggression in 2014. More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed and over 11,100 others sustained injuries in the onslaught. Hundreds of buildings were devastated in the war.

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