Capital punishment in the Gaza Strip: Difference between revisions
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{{see also| LGBT rights in Palestine | Capital punishment for homosexuality #Palestine }} |
{{see also| LGBT rights in Palestine | Capital punishment for homosexuality #Palestine }} |
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Despite widespread rumors, there is no capital punishment for homosexuality in the Gaza Strip.<ref name="HD - not enforced" /><ref name="Haaretz - Anis. F. Kassim" /> The laws against homosexual behavior in Palestine are a relic of the British and Ottoman{{cn| reason = current source only supports British era |date=June 2024}} rule in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], they specify a sentences of a maximum of 10 or 14 years,<ref name="HD - not enforced" /><ref name="Haaretz - Anis. F. Kassim" /> years in prison, and there in no evidence that these British colonial era laws are actually enforced in Gaza.<ref name="HD - not enforced" >{{cite news |title=Palestine |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/palestine/ |access-date=26 June 2024 |work=Human Dignity Trust |date=15 February 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Some interpretations of these laws say that it does not outlaw consensual gay sex between adults at all, though |
Despite widespread rumors, there is no capital punishment for homosexuality in the Gaza Strip.<ref name="HD - not enforced" /><ref name="Haaretz - Anis. F. Kassim" /> The laws against homosexual behavior in Palestine are a relic of the British and Ottoman{{cn| reason = current source only supports British era |date=June 2024}} rule in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], they specify a sentences of a maximum of 10 or 14 years,<ref name="HD - not enforced" /><ref name="Haaretz - Anis. F. Kassim" /> years in prison, and there in no evidence that these British colonial era laws are actually enforced in Gaza.<ref name="HD - not enforced" >{{cite news |title=Palestine |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/palestine/ |access-date=26 June 2024 |work=Human Dignity Trust |date=15 February 2019 |language=en}}</ref> Some interpretations of these laws say that it does not outlaw consensual gay sex between adults at all, though sex between consenting males remains criminalized. Anis. F. Kassim (editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Yearbook of International Law) said that Palestinian law (even in Gaza) could be interpreted as allowing non-commercial sex between consenting adult men.<ref name="Haaretz - Anis. F. Kassim" >{{cite news | last1=Abusalim | first1=Dorgham | title= The Real Oppressors of Gaza's Gay Community: Hamas or Israel? | url= https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2018-03-07/ty-article-opinion/.premium/who-are-the-real-oppressors-of-gazas-gay-community-hamas-or-israel/0000017f-f034-df98-a5ff-f3bd1d870000 | access-date= 26 June 2024 | date= 7 Mar 2018 }}</ref> However, there remain no laws in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) that explicitly prohibit sex between consenting women.<ref name="Human Dignity - women" >{{cite news| quote = Only men are criminalised under this law. |title=Palestine |url=https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/palestine/ |access-date=28 June 2024 |work=Human Dignity Trust |date=15 February 2019 |language=en}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
Revision as of 05:42, 29 June 2024
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Capital punishment in the Gaza Strip has been enforced by multiple governments, militaries, and irregular militias throughout the area's history. A large proportion of the killings have been associated with broader violent conflicts. Many of the executions have been described by some (see below) as extrajudicial killings for an incomplete or unrecorded court procedure.
History
![]() | You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Arabic. (May 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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The Palestinian National Authority in Gaza
The State Security Court in Gaza (Arabic: محكمة أمن الدولة في غزة), which was formed in 1995, issued several death sentences against eight people, as follows: 3 in 1995, 3 in 1997, and 2 in 1999, all of which were in murder cases. Not all sentences were carried out.[1]
Courts in the Gaza Strip after 2007
From the Battle of Gaza (2007) until the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023–present), The Hamas movement had control of the interior of the Gaza Strip on the ground, but did not control the airspace, maritime borders, or land borders.[2] Two parallel Palestinian judicial systems carried out executions in the Gaza Strip, civil and military.[3] The judiciary of the Hamas-led civilian government and the military courts of the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades. The West Bank and Gaza Strip governments collaborate closely on issues such as health, but on other issues the Gaza Strip authorities act more autonomously. Palestinian law requires approval from the Palestinian National Authority president (currently Mahmoud Abbas) for the death penalty, but authorities in the Gaza Strip have disregarded this rule on multiple occasions.[4]
Executions by Gaza's government and military (2007-2024)
23 executed in 2014
During the 2014 Gaza War,[5][6] Hamas executed 23 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.[7] According to an Amnesty International report, 23 Palestinians were executed by Al-Qassam in the course of the 2014 conflict, and 16 of them imprisoned from before the war began.[8][9] Some were on trial for espionage, but those trials were suddenly cut short. From among the executed, 6 were killed by a firing squad outside a mosque in front of hundreds of spectators including children. Amnesty claimed that Hamas used the cover of the war, which had a very heavily death toll,[5] to carry out summary executions, to settle scores against opponents under the pretext they were collaborators with Israel.[10][7] They were also accused of torture.[6]
Most of these executions of alleged collaborators occurred in response to the IDF assassinating Raed Attar and Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, and the spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Mohammed Deif, which instead killed his 27-year-old wife, his 3-year-old daughter, and 7-month-old son Ali Deif. The following day, 18 of the suspected collaborators were executed by firing squad.[11]
9 sentenced to death in 2015 and 4 in January 2016
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported in December 2015 that Hamas issued nine death sentences in 2015. Hamas had sentenced four Gazans to death during the first weeks of 2016, all on suspicion of spying.[12]
Mahmoud Eshtewi - February 2016
In February 2016, Al Qassam claimed they had executed of Mahmoud Eshtewi (Arabic: محمود رشدي اشتيوي, romanized: Maħmoud Rushdi Eshtewi,[13][14] sometimes spelled "Mahmoud Ishtiwi").[15] one of the group’s leading commanders, for very ambiguous reasons. Eshtewi was survived by his two widows and his three children.[16]
Most reliable sources at the time described the charges as unnamed or undefined.[17][18][13][19] The stated reason was “for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed” (Arabic: تجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها)[13][14][19] Whatever it may refer to, the confession was probably obtained by torture.[19][18] Before his death, his family had been told that the death penalty charge - treason (giving information to Israel that causes the deaths of Palestinians) - had been dropped.[19] There is some suspicion that Eshtewi died in custody and was shot after death, from reports of people who saw his body before burial and thought the bullet wounds looked suspicious.[13][19] The New York Times and other media from the USA interpreted the vague charges as a reference to a "homosexual relationship".[16][12]
3 convicts executed in May 2016
In May 2016, Hamas reportedly executed three men by firing squad and hanging.[20] The execution was performed in the al-Katiba prison. The executed men were convicted for murder. Reportedly, the execution defied protests from the United Nations and "will likely" deepen tensions with the Palestinian government in the West Bank.[20] Hamas defied an agreement with Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank, by carrying out the executions without the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas later announced that 13 additional prisoners are to be executed.[21]
3 alleged collaborators executed in April 2017
In April 2017, it was reported that three Palestinians were executed by Hamas in Gaza Strip over alleged collaboration with Israel.[22] Reportedly, the men were hanged at a Hamas police compound, as dozens of Hamas leaders and officials watched the killing.[23][24]
13 sentenced between January and August 2022
According to B'Tselem, Hamas courts handed down 13 death sentences in January-August 2022, but had not carried out any since 2017.[4]
5 executed in September 2022
On 4 September 2022, Hamas announced they had executed five men, including two men condemned over collaboration with the occupation (Israel), and three others in criminal cases.[25] A resident of Khan Younis born 1968 was convicted of supplying Israel in 1991 with “information on men of the resistance, their residence… and the location of rocket launchpads”; a second man, born 1978, was for supplying Israel in 2001 with intelligence “that led to the targeting and martyrdom of citizens” by Israeli forces, according to Hamas.[4] The other three men had been convicted for murder.
Death sentences and executions in the Gaza Strip (2005-2024)
Name(s) | Charge | Date | Location | Method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ayman Taha [citation needed] | Treason | 4 August 2014 | Unknown | Shot |
Atta Najjar[26] | Treason | 22 August 2014 | Katiba prison | Unknown |
Mahmoud Eshtewi (also spelled "Ishtiwi") Arabic: محمود اشتيوي |
Undefined | February 2016 | Gaza Strip | Firing squad (alleged by Al Qassam)[27][19] Prior death in custody (alleged by others)[18][19] |
3 unnamed people | Murder (3) | September 2022 | Gaza Strip | Hanging [citation needed] |
Khan Younis resident | Treason[A] | |||
Unnamed 44 year old male[B] | Treason[C] |
Misinformation about executions in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip
While it is true that Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades militant wing have been credibly accused of numerous war crimes including various extrajudicial executions, some commonly told stories about executions in the Gaza Strip have been over simplified, exaggerated, distorted, or completely fabricated.[28] For example, during the Israel–Hamas war, a video described as “Hamas executes people by throwing them off a roof of a building!” circulated on social media, but the video was from 2015 and not from the State of Palestine.[28] A July 2015 report from Al Arabiya, included identical images and states that they were originally shared by the so-called Islamic State, and showed the execution of four gay men in Fallujah, Iraq.[28]
Allegations of capital punishment for homosexuality
Despite widespread rumors, there is no capital punishment for homosexuality in the Gaza Strip.[29][30] The laws against homosexual behavior in Palestine are a relic of the British and Ottoman[citation needed] rule in Palestine, they specify a sentences of a maximum of 10 or 14 years,[29][30] years in prison, and there in no evidence that these British colonial era laws are actually enforced in Gaza.[29] Some interpretations of these laws say that it does not outlaw consensual gay sex between adults at all, though sex between consenting males remains criminalized. Anis. F. Kassim (editor-in-chief of the Palestinian Yearbook of International Law) said that Palestinian law (even in Gaza) could be interpreted as allowing non-commercial sex between consenting adult men.[30] However, there remain no laws in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) that explicitly prohibit sex between consenting women.[31]
See also
- Extrajudicial killings in the Gaza Strip
- Executions and assassinations in the West Bank and Jerusalem
- Palestinian land laws
- Human rights in the State of Palestine
- Extrajudicial killings by Hamas
- Criticism of Hamas
- Hamas war crimes
- LGBT rights in the Gaza Strip
- War crimes during the Israel–Hamas war
- Human rights in Palestine
- Human rights in Israel's occupied territories
- label 5 = Extrajudicial killings by Hamas
References
- ^ "عقوبة الإعدام في مناطق السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية بين التشريعات السارية والمعايير الدولية The death penalty in the areas of the Palestinian National Authority between applicable legislation and international standards". مركز المعلومات الوطني الفلسطيني Palestinian National Information Center. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ "What is Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian enclave under Israeli assault?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/10/03/abusive-system/failures-criminal-justice-gaza
- ^ a b c d e Times of Israel Archived 2022-09-04 at the Wayback Machine, 4 September 2022
- ^ a b "PHOTOS: The Gaza families obliterated in just 51 days". +972 Magazine. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ a b Kershner, Isabel (27 May 2015). "Hamas accused of killing and torturing Palestinians". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ a b Beaumont, Peter (27 May 2015). "Hamas executed 23 Palestinians under cover of Gaza conflict, says Amnesty". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "Hamas tortured and killed Palestinian 'collaborators' during Gaza conflict - new report". Amnesty International. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "'Strangling Necks': Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict" (PDF). Amnesty International. p. 5, 15, 19. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "Gaza: Palestinians tortured, summarily killed by Hamas forces during 2014 conflict". Amnesty International. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
- ^ Gold, Shabtai (22 August 2014). "Hamas executes 18 'collaborators' in Gaza". Haaretz. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
- ^ a b Moore, Jack (2 March 2016). "Hamas executed a prominent commander after accusations of gay sex". Newsweek. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
Hamas announced that the man in charge of a number of the group's tunnels used for smuggling and surprise attacks had been executed for moral turpitude, a Hamas term for homosexuality[better source needed] … a Hamas[who?] investigation alleged that Ishtiwi had hidden money designated for his unit's weapons, before an unnamed man claimed to have had sex with him, providing details about their meetings. The investigation concluded that the money Ishtiwi had stolen had been used to pay the man for sexual relations or to bribe him to keep Ishtiwi's secret.
Note: The phrase translated by this source as "moral turpitude" is translated in other sources as "moral transgressions" and can also be read as "ethics violations", and there is no evidence of it being used by Hamas in any other context to specifically refer to Men who have Sex with Men (MSM). - ^ a b c d "تعذيب وموت محتجز لدى حماس في غزة". Human Rights Watch (in Arabic). 16 February 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.
- ^ a b "Implementation of the death sentence issued against Phalange member Mahmoud Eshtewi". Military Information Department of EQB. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
- ^ Pfeffer, Anshel (13 May 2024). "Hamas leader's torture tactics revealed in IDF tunnel raid". The Times. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
- ^ a b Hadid, Diaa; Waheidi, Majd Al (1 March 2016). "Hamas Commander, Accused of Theft and Gay Sex, Is Killed by His Own". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
Adding a layer of scandal to the story, he was accused of moral turpitude, by which Hamas meant homosexuality." … "Mr. Ishtiwi, who is survived by two wives and three children…
- ^ "Hamas kills a local commander for unnamed 'violations'". AP News. AP. 7 February 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ a b c "פלסטין: עציר עונה ומת בידי חמאס - Human Rights Watch" (in Hebrew). 15 February 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Palestine: Torture, Death of Hamas Detainee - Human Rights Watch". Human Rights Watch. 15 February 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
His family said they discovered that Qassam operatives held him in secret locations until February 7, when the group's Military Information Department issued a statement saying it had executed Eshtewi after sentencing him to death "for behavioral and moral violations to which he confessed".
- ^ a b Sanchez, Raf (31 May 2016). "Hamas begins executions in Gaza". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ Dearden, Lizzie (2 June 2016). "Hamas resumes executions in Gaza". The Independent. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "Hamas executes 3 Palestinians over Israel ties". Associated Press via USA Today. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
- ^ "Palestine: Hamas executes three civilians tried in Gaza military courts". Amnesty International. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- ^ Security, Jack Moore International; Correspondent, Terrorism (6 April 2017). "Hamas Hangs Three in Gaza For Israel 'Collaboration'". Newsweek. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
{{cite web}}
:|last2=
has generic name (help) - ^ "Execution of Gaza prisoners condemned by UN rights office | UN News". news.un.org. 5 September 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- ^ "'Strangling Necks': Abductions, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict - occupied Palestinian territory". ReliefWeb. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
- ^ "تعذيب وموت محتجز لدى حماس في غزة". Human Rights Watch (in Arabic). 16 February 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
لتجاوزاته السلوكية والأخلاقية التي أقر بها - For his behavioral and moral transgressions that he acknowledged.
- ^ a b c "Fact Check: Video of people thrown from roof shows punishment by IS, not Hamas". Reuters. 15 December 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- ^ a b c "Palestine". Human Dignity Trust. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ a b c Abusalim, Dorgham (7 March 2018). "The Real Oppressors of Gaza's Gay Community: Hamas or Israel?". Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ "Palestine". Human Dignity Trust. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
Only men are criminalised under this law.