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Itongadol.- Two Palestinians were executed in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as Israeli spies, the enclave\’s Islamist Hamas government said, adding they had helped the Israeli military carry out lethal operations.
The condemned men, one of whom was hanged and the other shot by firing squad, "provided the Occupation [Israel] with information that led to the martyrdom of citizens," the Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum says the men, both in their 30s, had given information to Israel for nine years about Gaza fighters.
Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and its charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Under local law, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is meant to have the final say on whether executions should be carried out. Hamas has refused any such consultations, though it entered a unity deal with Abbas last month designed to end a seven-year rift.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the use of the death penalty in Gaza, but Hamas rejects such criticism.
The Interior Ministry statement said the men executed on Wednesday had exhausted legal options and had access to attorneys.
Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, at least 19 prisoners have been executed, 10 of them as alleged spies.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza says more than 150 people have been executed in the Palestinian territories over the past 20 years, the vast majority in Gaza, particularly under Hamas rule.