The Hamas leadership moved yesterday to distance itself from the public shooting of six men on a street Gaza by four masked gunmen, apparently members of the organisation’s military wing. The six were accused of collaborating with Israel and were shot dead on Tuesday in front of a crowd after an alleged trial.
Their bodies were left lying where they fell but one was later tied by his feet to the back of a motorbike and dragged through the streets. At least eight other motorbikers and pillions acted as outriders, some of them firing guns into the air as they went. As the corpse was dragged along, people screamed, “Spy! Spy!” according to a news report.
Killings condemned
Yesterday Hamas’s deputy politburo chief, Mousa Abu Marzook, posted a message on Facebook condemning the killings, and demanding that those behind the act be tried.
“The way these collaborators were killed and the images after their death are totally unacceptable and those responsible must be indicted. These events must never repeat themselves,” he wrote.
Palestinian human rights groups condemned the incident. Abu Marzook commented further: “We endorse punishments to spies and especially to those who took part in the death of our commander [Ahmed Jabari, killed by Israel on November 14th] and undermine our resistance but they should only be punished by law.”
Sources: Ynet.com; Associated Press; Ma'an, the independent Palestinian news agency, Israel; Agence France Presse; Times of Israel
